Given the re-conceptualization and revaluation of the terms Populus Dei and Respublica during the Late Antique. Augustine of Hippo, theoretical support of the new Christian era

Abstract

The Late Antiquity as a novel concept and periodization, had among the authors who gave it form and meaning Henry Irenée Marrou who, in 1938, published Saint Augustin et le fin du culture Antique (De Boccard). Augustine of Hippo, has been for Marrou, a privileged witness of the tensions between pagans, Christians and barbarians that preluded the destruction and occupation of Rome in 410. In Marrou's words, Saint Augustine “is the great Western theorist dedicated to the formulation of "a new Christian ideal apart from the classical tradition." It was he who served as the theoretical support of the new Christian era. In this work I will present a study of the concepts of “Populus Dei” and “Christian Res-publica”. The great bishop of Hippo took as his political-religious archetype the Ciceronian republic, which fell from grace as a result of the political immorality of the late republic. Based on this, Augustine presents the republican system with its axis in virtue as a moralizing element and focused on the concept of “true justice”, typical of Christians.