Augustine’s Just War: Balancing Political Pessimism and Optimism

Abstract

There is an age-old debate regarding Augustine’s pessimism which has garnered much attention in recent years: Does Augustine have any hope for temporal politics or not? The traditional interpretation holds him to be a political pessimist, while recent scholarship has mounted a counter-offensive rooted in an Augustinian hope for the political realm. This essay offers a new contribution to the debate by directly linking Augustine’s treatment of just war to these recent debates. The literature on Augustinian pessimism and optimism is impressive, but its treatment of war is often obscured by the long shadow of Reinhold Niebuhr’s Augustinian realism. My argument is that any account of pessimism in Augustine must grapple with the substantial emphasis he places on the themes of war and peace, especially his statements permitting warfare for Christians. With a proper understanding of Augustinian just war, we can better comprehend the value Augustine places on political participation. I argue that Augustine’s endorsement of certain just wars outlines a lower boundary of political action that Augustine’s pessimism never eliminates. However, because this type of participation involves killing, it is inherently sorrowful. I also analyze Augustine’s tragic rhetoric on war which limits the upper boundary of political hope.