Junior Fellow 2004-05
Eric Gregory
Princeton University
Politics and the Order of Love:
Modern Variations on Augustinian Themes
This study places Augustine of Hippo and his contested legacy in
conversation with contemporary debates in philosophical and religious
ethics, political theory, and moral psychology. In particular, I
will examine the implications of two themes in Augustinian theology
which have analogues in secular political theory and virtue ethics:
1) a conception of love (and related notions of friendship, care,
community, solidarity, and sympathy), and 2) a conception of sin
(and related notions of cruelty, evil, pride, and selfishness).
Historically, the former theme has justified perfectionist, even
theocratic, politics. More recently, the latter theme has justified
essentially negative forms of political liberalism. I argue that
neither outcome is normatively adequate. From an Augustinian point
of view, love and sin constrain each other in ways that yield a
distinctive vision of the limits and possibilities of political
life. In contrast to critics and defenders of “Augustinian
pessimism,”
I propose a morally robust version of Augustinian liberalism based
on Augustine’s theological transformation of the classical
emphasis on the reformation of desire and its social consequences
in late antiquity. Given that theology and political theory share
an interest in properly formulating these themes, convergence on
similar solutions has the additional advantage of helping religious
and secular liberals join together against anti-liberalism.
My version of an Augustinian ethic of democratic citizenship shares
liberal concerns for respect and equality even as it challenges
liberal reciprocity as an ideal and certain modern accounts of autonomy.
By aligning Augustinian caritas with a feminist “ethic
of care,” the project tries to move beyond preoccupations
with epistemology and to provide a viable liberal way of thinking
about virtue, affectivity, and motivation. Refiguring Augustine’s
much maligned conception of love (especially his categories of “use”
and “enjoyment”) offers a positive yet troubled resource
for political Augustinianism concerned with releasing politics from
pressures it can not bear and overcoming the self-deceptive anxieties
that often generate anti-liberalism. A major feature of the study
considers two powerful challenges representatively raised by Hannah
Arendt: 1) a philosophical challenge to political love as such,
and 2) a theological challenge to Augustinian love in particular.
I defend Augustine against charges that neighbor love is conceptually
untenable in his theology, reduced either to an otherworldly love
for God or into an occasion to actualize oneself; and, I challenge
Arendt’s “Kantian” aversion to love as a sentimental
and dangerous virtue that needs to be privatized. While I primarily
will pursue the logic of an Augustinian liberalism, the study shows
the value of allowing the strengths of each tradition to correct
the weaknesses of the other.
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