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<\/a><\/p>\n“Doctrinaire libertarians are not likely to be persuaded by St. Augustine’s arguments supporting the view that, when civil governments are willing to do so, they have a right to compel heretics to enter the Church. Yet, upon close examination, these arguments (of Augustine) seem to stand up rather well as compared or contrasted with, say, President Lincoln’s views on compelling the rebellious Southern States to remain in the Federal Union, or the views of those who have justified the use of force to compel integration of the races in American schools, or of the separated provinces in the old Belgian Congo. St. Augustine pleads eloquently for mercy in the administration of civil laws, and demands of Christian public officials that they respect his pleas. Yet, at the same time, he warns all concerned with the maintenance of civil order not to undermine the foundations of society by attempting to ‘legalize’ or ‘legislate’ mercy.”<\/p>\n
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In more recent times, situations like Jonestown, or Waco, or Islamic fanaticism makes it clear that changes in ideas are ultimately the only things that can really stop certain kinds of terrorism. Augustine was aware of this dilemma that eventually confronts all actual political societies. Augustine’s realism, as it is called, is not a principle for justifying evil deeds, but it is an awareness that evil deeds and deeply flawed thoughts that cannot be absolutely separated do exist and do cause unavoidable problems for any commonwealth, for any tyranny, for that matter.<\/p>\n
\u00a0Augustine’s realism has, however, been said to protect bad regimes. It should be recalled, in this context, of course, that one of the functions of Aristotle’s description of good and bad regimes, was to indicate that a change in regime will not necessarily mean a change for the better. But change is justified only if it is a change for the better. For the most part, Augustine advises citizens and Christians to obey the Emperor, as St. Paul himself recommended (Romans<\/em>, 13:1-7). By failing to seek a radical change, Augustine is said to contribute to keeping the worst regime in power. But Augustine’s strategy, as that of Paul, was to realize that changes of regime are often better achieved by working to save and foster what is good even in a bad or tyrannical regime.<\/p>\n \u00a0Augustine was in fact always talking about changing things. His whole personal life is a witness to such change. In addition to being aware of Aristotle’s notion that we could change from a bad regime to one even worse, something Augustine would have had no trouble understanding, it was primarily a question of what to change first, oneself or one’s state. Indeed, it might be argued that Augustine has elaborated for us the most radical political philosophy possible by the very fact that he changed himself, changed himself, that is, as he tells it in The Confessions<\/em>, by the grace of God, and, we might add, by the sharpness of his own insights into himself and others. \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0Augustine, in fact, does not deny the classical distinctions between the different forms of rule — monarchy, aristocracy, polity, democracy, oligarchy, and tyranny, together with mixtures of the same. Augustine does not deny that some forms of rule are better than others. Rome was better than Carthage, not to mention better than the invading barbarians, even though these latter barbarians eventually became Christians and good Romans. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Augustine’s advice for those caught in bad regimes is that the highest things are still possible for them but in the City of God. That is to say, there is not a one-to-one correlation between the final destiny of human beings and the sort of city in which they actually lived. Man is by nature a social animal, but the society to which he is destined is not a polity after the manner of existing cities. On the other hand, Augustine thought that right living and rightly ordered souls would inevitably produce a more prosperous and a more noble public order. In fact, in The City of God<\/em>, he continually pointed out to the Roman politicians and philosophers that it was the Christians who were serving in the army and obeying the laws of the Empire. Thereby, the very backbone of the Empire depended not on the pagan Romans but on the virtue of the Christians.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n