True Justice: Augustine Vs. Reality

Fritz Streiff

21.9.06

SSC 151

True Justice: Augustine versus Reality

In his book "The City of God", Augustine (354 Ð'- 430) described two metaphorical cities: an earthly city and a heavenly one. In both there are forms of justice to be found. The former will be described as the form of justice of the ordinary people living in the earthly city. Accordingly, the latter shall be characterized as the form of justice to be met in the city of God. Finally, it will be demonstrated that only the city of God's justice completely agrees with Augustine's perception of true justice.

Firstly, there is the earthly city which is inhabited by the ordinary human being. It is corrupted by the nature of man and full of conflicts, wars, quarrels and personal pride. Furthermore, what matters in the earthly city is the love of the self rather than the love for God. According to this, Augustine writes in his book "The City of God" that it is necessary to

"restrain him [the human being] from sin or punishing his sin, so that either he who is chastised may be corrected by his experience, or others may be warned by his example" (304).

This means that in the earthly city some type of authority is essential in order to preserve peace using all kinds of measures. Even violent acts as a form of punishment become justified by that. As an illustration, this could be a state, government or even a family father hitting his son, who stole something, as a form of punishment in order to contribute to the city's harmony and peace. He commits sin because public peace was disturbed through the son's sin. Consequently, this is, according to Augustine, the form of justice of the earthly city.

Secondly, Augustine portrays the city of God. It is concerned with the love of God, over the love of the self. It is not a real city, like the earthly city, but exists for those men who desire to know God and hence strive to become a member of it. They have been saved through their belief in God and thus are immune from humanly vices. As a strong believer himself, Augustine, hence, considers the Romans to have had an unjust society because they worshipped other gods (307), referring to Roman Paganism, and strove for power and glory which in the City of God is unworthy. The only goal in the City of God is the pilgrimage towards God. Accordingly, Augustine assents that:

"Justice is found where the one supreme God rules an obedient City according to his grace, so it sacrifices to none but Him; and where, in consequence, the soul rules the body in all menÐ'..." (307)

Consequently, one can state that, after Augustine, justice is only to be found in the city of God. Moreover, God is the last instance, and not the state in the earthly city. Because all men are "to