A noção de concórdia no ideal de "Estado" agostiniano

Abstract

The aim of this research is to analyze aspects of Augustinian political philosophy to identify where it resides and how the notion of concord is given within the context of the concept of a just state. In order to achieve this, we can begin with the religious and cultural change that took place in the Roman Empire with the formalization of Christianity as official religion. It is in this scenario that the notion of agreed studied in this research finds its origins, because all the way covered by the new religion points to the need for a theorization of the relations between State and Church. The position defended in this work is that a set of ideas is found in Augustine that contains a reflection on how Christianity could offer structuring means for the maintenance and consolidation of the social order and peace, not only for the Roman State, but also for any people open to the divine precepts. This perspective arises from specific situations experienced by the Bishop of Hippo, namely: the donatist question, the plundering of Rome in 410 and the decadence of the Empire. With realities such as these, which pointed to imperial disintegration and a division of the Church, Augustine proposes a change of values capable of making all people live well on earth. To this end, the philosopher divides the whole of humanity into two groups, namely the earthly city (which serves the desires) and the heavenly city (which serves God), showing the leading role of the second group in better managing the goods sufficient for the construction and maintenance of temporal peace. Moreover, an element present in the Christian doctrine and coined by Saint Paul, namely, caritas, makes the heavenly city have a potential substratum to promote union and collective responsibility. Thus, when the divine precepts are used in what establishes and defines the State, namely concord, it can be transformed into a reality that prioritizes something that all humans desire: earthly peace. Thus, the fundamental consensus must be guided by the search for social order in the light of eternal law, which offers the most effective means for the ordering of society, even in the coercive sense. Moreover, since temporal peace is the desire of an agreement crowd, it has the power to determine the forms of government and laws. In this way, the developments resulting from concord will lead to the thesis that the power of a state resides in it and depends on it to be just.