Augustine on the Moral Significance of Human Law
Book 1 of Augustine's dialogue De Libero Arbitrio offers his only systematic account of the proper tasks of human or political law. While this text is often read as asserting that political law has no moral-educative function, in fact one of its characters, Evodius, is put forth as a striking i...
| Published in: | Revue d'études augustiniennes et patristiques |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Institution
[2015]
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| In: |
Revue d'études augustiniennes et patristiques
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| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Augustinus, Aurelius, Saint 354-430, De libero arbitrio. 1
/ Legislation
/ Legislation (Theology)
/ Morals
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| RelBib Classification: | KAB Church history 30-500; early Christianity NBE Anthropology NCA Ethics XA Law |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (Verlag) Volltext (doi) |
| Parallel Edition: | Non-electronic
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| Summary: | Book 1 of Augustine's dialogue De Libero Arbitrio offers his only systematic account of the proper tasks of human or political law. While this text is often read as asserting that political law has no moral-educative function, in fact one of its characters, Evodius, is put forth as a striking illustration of the effects of political law's educative function. Augustine shows us Evodius in order to demonstrate how difficult it is for a sincere Christian who believes himself independent of the law's moral guidance to be truly freed from that guidance, and how likely one is to remain under the sway of that guidance even after accepting the Augustinian detachment from politics that Augustine eventually brings Evodius to accept. This text shows that laws cannot help but inculcate a certain basic moral understanding in both their Christian and their non-Christian subjects, and hence that the relative quality of this legally inculcated moral education must be part of any genuinely Augustinian evaluation of a given political situation or regime. |
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| ISSN: | 2428-3606 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Revue d'études augustiniennes et patristiques
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1484/J.REA.5.110922 |