Abstract

Augustine’s approach to politics and, hence, to political ethics, begins with consideration of the human being or “soul” and reaches its highpoint in the ideal of a Christian statesman, not in an ideal political order. Augustine offers no theory concerning the relationship between the church and the political order. On the other hand, the paper contends that his concept of the ideal statesman provides the elusive bridge in his thought between ecclesia and res publica. Augustine’s ideal of the Christian statesman is framed against the background of his reflections concerning Christ, because, in his view, Christ alone mediates true virtue to the soul, and therefore to the statesman. Augustine thus takes up the task in the City of God and in his letters to public officials to deconstruct all other accounts of political virtue – philosophical and religious – on the grounds that real virtue is to be understood exclusively as Christ’s virtue acting through the human soul. This principle is what characterizes the radical originality of Augustine’s approach to political ethics