“地上之国总是无常”:奥古斯丁论“罗马帝国”

"Habent Mutationes Terrena Regna": Augustine on the "Romanum Imperium"

作为一位生活在罗马晚期的著名基督教思想家,奥古斯丁对"罗马帝国"的态度在西方政治思想史上具有典范性的意义。在《上帝之城》等著作中,他对罗马的成就与地位给予了相当高的评价,也拒绝了对帝国的任何神化,认为它始终只是一个尘世中的国家,始终具有善恶并存的两面性。奥古斯丁的罗马观植根于其历史神学中的"尘世"(Saeculum)观念,与其国家观具有内在的一致性。

As an outstanding Christian thinker of the late Roman era, the attitudes of Augustine of Hippo to the Roman empire had exemplary significance for the history of the Western political ideas. In City of God and other writings, he refused to deify the empire despite his positive appraisal of its achievements and position, seeing it simply as a state in saeculum in which a duality of good and evil constantly coexisted. Augustines view of Rome was rooted in the concept of saeculum in his historical theology, and is inherently consistent with his view of the State.