AUGUSTINE’S THEOLOGY OF LOVE: AN IMPETUS FOR CHRISTIAN SOCIAL ACTION

Abstract

Love, understood as the unity of love of God and love of neighbor, provides the theological and ethical hermeneutical normative for accessing the foundation and scope of Christian social engagement. Although Augustine would not have considered himself a political theologian in the formal sense of the term, this paper argues that his teaching on love nevertheless provides a theological framework for active Christian social encounter. This validates one of the major claims of critical theologies: that it is the responsibility of every; and not any single, theological discipline to dialogue with human persons in their concrete situations, i.e., in the world.