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St. Augustine's View Of Justice Essay

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Throughout history, the notion of justice has been one of the major issues that have crossed the minds of philosophers and thinkers. St. Augustine, as one of the major advocates of Christian philosophy and theology, expressed his ideas on justice in his book The City of God. In this book, St. Augustine’s view of justice was based on one of the elementary ideas of Cicero, which is justice as a civic virtue. St. Augustine and Cicero viewed justice as an external creation of internal virtue. However, St. Augustine altered Cicero’s view to fit his Christian beliefs. He believed that the source of internal virtue was given by God, while Cicero believed that the source of internal virtue was human reason.
St. Augustine believed that justice is one of the four ways of loving God, and because of that he thought that justice is a social purpose that begins and ends with the devotion and love of God. His definition was influenced by that of Cicero, since he defined justice as a virtue concerned with the impartial treatment of individuals when following one’s social responsibilities. However, he added a whole new dimension to his concept of justice because of his Christianity and devotion of God. St. Augustine firmly believed that only Christians, which worshipped God, can exercise true justice through the submission to …show more content…

One must always look to help your neighbor and have in mind that selflessness with one another is justice. Moreover, peace and order are the circumstances in which justice can be achieved by Augustine. When order is achieved within oneself, a man is ready to treat others with justice, and it is the constant seeking of peace what drives men search for a just society. Augustine, however, linked the notion of justice with his Christian beliefs and truly believed that Christians that are devoted to God are the only

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