DOI
https://doi.org/10.1017/S0017816016000274
Abstract
During Augustine's life, government authorities were generally friendly to the Christianity he came to adopt and defend. His correspondence mentions one imperial magistrate in Africa, Virius Nicomachus Flavianus, a pagan vicar of Africa who seemed partial to Donatist Christians whom Augustine considered secessionists. Otherwise, from the 390s to 430, assorted proconsuls, vicars, and tribunes sent from the imperial chancery and asked to maintain order in North Africa were willing to enforce government edicts against Donatists and pagans. To an extent, Augustine endorsed enforcement. He was troubled by punitive measures that looked excessive to him, yet scholars generally agree with Peter Burnell that Augustine unambiguously approved punitive judgments as an “unavoidable” necessity. But Burnell and others seem to make too much of it: Augustine's position on punishment supposedly indicates that he posited “an essential continuity” (rather than emphasized the contrast) between “any given state” and the celestial or “eschatological” city of God.
Document Type
Post-print Article
Publication Date
10-5-2016
Publisher Statement
Copyright © 2016, Harvard Theological Review.
The definitive version is available at: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/harvard-theological-review/article/div-classtitleaugustineandaposs-punishmentsdiv/F163F257322C13D678D60A9783BE079A
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0017816016000274
Full citation:
Kaufman, Peter Iver. "Augustine's Punishments." Harvard Theological Review 109, no. 4 (October 5, 2016): 550-566. doi:https://doi.org/10.1017/S0017816016000274.
Recommended Citation
Kaufman, Peter Iver, "Augustine's Punishments" (2016). Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications. 227.
https://scholarship.richmond.edu/jepson-faculty-publications/227