Civil society, “civil theology” and Augustine’s political morality: a comparative analysis with ancient teachings

Abstract

The study is devoted to a comparative analysis of the concepts of “civil society”, “civil theology” in relation to the political morality of Blessed Augustine Aurelius with ancient teachings. The article attempts a hermeneutic analysis of the concept of civil society often used in the theory of state-legal doctrines. The differences are established between the pagan Roman understanding of justice and the proposed by Blessed Augustine, based on Holy Scripture as the basis of state-legal relations in ancient society: according to Augustine, the real reason why classical philosophy makes it impossible to raise virtuous people and leads to self-destruction is not because it is irreligious, but because it expresses itself in a wrong and wrong conception of a deity. And this is most evident in pagan polytheism. It is therefore clear that Augustine, in his attempt to define civil society, follows the classical tradition, emphasizing its essential agreement with Scripture. His main opposition to the ancient pagan philosophers concerns not so much their teaching about the natural ideals of civil society and the need for the existence of justice within it, but their inability to achieve a single just society.