Revista Filosofía UIS

Vol. 24 No. 2 (2025): July - December
Articles

Saint Augustine: the tension between self-love and divine love in The City of God

PDF (Español (España))
  • Yuliana Leal Granobles
Yuliana Leal Granobles
Pontificia Universidad Javeriana Cali, Colombia
DOI: https://doi.org/10.18273/revfil.v24n2-2025001

Published 2025-03-29

Keywords

  • desire,
  • love,
  • passion,
  • God,
  • supreme good,
  • freedom
    • ...More
    Less

How to Cite

Leal Granobles, Y. (2025). Saint Augustine: the tension between self-love and divine love in The City of God. Revista Filosofía UIS, 24(2), 9–33. https://doi.org/10.18273/revfil.v24n2-2025001

Copyright (c) 2025 Revista Filosofía UIS

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to analyze the concept of love in The City of God by Saint Augustine. For which I will do an exegetical reconstruction that, in the first place, will examine the concepts of passions and moral sin within Augustinian Psychology. Secondly, I will address to the distinction between self-love, the expression of the selfishness of the human being when he is carried away by human passions, and the love of God (amor dei), the manifestation of right and unconditional desire, oriented both ontologically and anthropologically to God as Supreme Good and source of truth. Thirdly, I will focus my attention on the concepts of the earthly city and the divine city that embody the author's political vision. Augustinian reflections are novel for their time, and these can be current because we find the recognition of the conflictive dimension of political life and in germ a policy of caring for the other through the caritas.

PDF (Español (España))

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

  1. Agustín de Hipona (2023). La Ciudad de Dios. (R. Marina Sáez, Trad.). Gredos.
  2. Agustín de Hipona (2020). Confesiones. (P. Rodríguez de Santidrián, Trad.). Gredos.
  3. Almeyda, J. (2020). Aristóteles y Tomás de Aquino: un análisis en torno a la polís y res publica. Revista UIS Filosofía, 19(1), 35-58. https://doi.org/10.18273/revfil.v19n1-2020011
  4. Arendt, H. (2002). La Vida del Espíritu. (C. Corral, Trad.). Ediciones Paidós.
  5. Brown, P. (2003). Agustín de Hipona. Acento Editorial.
  6. Bulnes, J. (1956). Psicología. Editorial La Silla.
  7. Burnell, P. J. (1992). The Status of Politics in St. Augustine’s City of God. History of Political Thought, 13(1), 13-29.
  8. Fitzgerald, A. (2001). Diccionario de San Agustín. Ediciones Monte Carmelo.
  9. Gilson, É. (1949). Introduction à l’étude de Saint Augustin. Vrin.
  10. Horn, C. (2012). Agustín de Hipona. Una introducción. Instituto de Estudios de la sociedad.
  11. Mann, W. (2006). Augustine on evil and original sin. En E. Stump y N. Kretzmann (Ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Augustine (pp. 40-48). Cambridge University Press.
  12. Markus, R. A. (1970). Saeculum: History and Society in the Theology of St. Augustine. Cambridge University Press.
  13. Nussbaum, M. (2022). Ciudadelas de la soberbia. (A. Santos Mosquera, Trad.). Editorial Paidós.
  14. O'Daly, G. (2004). Augustine's City of God. A Reader's Guide. Oxford University Press.
  15. Weithman, P. (2006). Augustine´s Political Philosophy. En The Cambridge Companion to Augustine (pp. 234-252). Cambridge University Press.