In a 2010 essay in Political Theology , Daniel Bell, Jr. offers a sharp critique of Hardt and Negri and Amgamben. He notes that, in contrast to other democratic theorists, Hardt and Negri hold out a modest hope for “democratic polities [that are] fugitive, episodic, on the run and generally overwhelmed.” Not a pep talk exactly; but Bell thinks the problem is worse: “their hope is not merely modest but impossible.” One reason is ontological: “their univocal ontology precludes .... Read more
In de officiis 1.28, Ambrose mentions some who “considered it consonant with justice that one should treat common, that is, public property as public, and private as private.” He rejects the position: “this is not even in accord with nature.” He elaborates in terms of a doctrine of creation that overlaps with Stoicism: “for nature has poured forth all things for all men for common use. God has ordered all things to be produced, so that there should be food... Read more
Smith argues that Hardt and Negri’s proposals for resistance to empire are insufficiently radical (FL is “libertarian freedom”): “what the multitude desires is absolute freedom, and what the multitude opposes in Empire is its repression and restriction of freedom. But just what concept of freedom is operative in their proposal? It would seem clear, given the negative mode of formulation (freedom as a freedom from restrictions), the concept of freedom that drives both their critique and constructive vision is a... Read more
Smith’s article sums up David Burrell’s argument that we cannot have freedom at all without a Creator as a final cause. Burrell writes: “if I cannot be pushed to will something, but only drawn to do so, not even God can cause me to do something freely, if we are thinking of an efficient cause. Yet God, as my sovereign good, could so draw my will as to bring me freely to consent to the end for which my nature... Read more
In a 2009 essay in Political Theology , Jamie Smith notes the difference between libertarian freedom and the Augustinian notion of freedom to pursue and do the Good. He puts the matter starkly: Quoting David Burrell, he argues that libertarian freedom “demands ‘that a free agent parallel a creator ex nihilo . What the Christian (and Jewish and Muslim) theological tradition ascribes to the Creator, modern libertarian accounts of freedom ascribe to creatures.” He adds that “to affirm libertarian non-teleological... Read more
Robert Dodaro’s take on Christ and the Just Society in the Thought of Augustine confirms Bowlin’s criticisms of Markus. Late in his book, Dodaro summarizes Augustine’s correspondence with Macedonius, vicar of Africa, written in 413/14. Starting from an appeal for clemency for someone on death row, the letters turn into an early “mirror of magistrates.” Dodaro summarizes: Augustine “explains how the virtues of faith and hope transform the way in which civic virtues like fortitude and justice are understood in... Read more
In a 1997 articles in the Annual of the Society of Christian Ethics , John Bowlin critiques the accounts of the “contradictions” or “tensions” between Augustine’s overall political theology and his advocacy of coercing Donatists into the church. Bowlin takes on RL Markus ( Saeculum ) and Milbank, who for different reasons think Augustine inconsistent at this point. On Bowlin’s reading, Markus admired Augustine mainly for the “secular, pluralist, and autonomous politics that he finds in Augustine’s mature theology of... Read more
Early on in Politics & the Order of Love , Eric Gregory comments, in response to anti-liberal Augustinians like Milbank and Hauerwas, that “theological orthodoxy and political liberalism are not alternative answers to the same question.” Analyzing Gregory’s work in the Journal of Religious Ethics , James KA Smith offers this rejoinder, which dovetails with my brief criticisms of Gregory yesterday: “Gregory’s account of liberalism fails to appreciate the extent to which liberalism is not just forming penultimate habits, but... Read more
Augustine from a sermon on the two tablets: “the Decalogue pertains to the two precepts, that is, those of love for God and neighbor. Three strings belong to the first precept because God is Trinity. While to the other precept, that is, love for the neighbor, there are seven strings: how one should live with other human beings . . . . Let us join these seven to those three pertaining to love for God, if we wish to sing... Read more
One of Gregory’s contributions is to show the central relevance of Augustine’s distinction of use and enjoyment to political thought. He notes early on that “Arendt recognizes that Augustine’s greatest question may not be that he became a question to himself. Rather, the ‘magna quaestio’ he asks is ‘whether humans should enjoy one another or use one another, or both’ – or put differently, ‘whether one person should be loved by another on his own account or for some other... Read more
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