Citoyen par amour. Émotions et institutions

Written shortly after the sack of Rome, Augustin’s De Civitate Dei Augustine develops a metapolitical perspective on the genesis and the corruption of states and institutions in human history. Facing the ruins of the Roman Empire, Augustine questions the deepest nature of the social bond and the ultimate foundation of any human states and institutions. The answer he gives is radically opposed to the entire philosophical and political Roman and Greek tradition: instead of considering that peoples and states base on a common set of interests and on a shared legal system, he developed a political psychology which find in love the foundation of any institution. The article contextualizes and analyzes the political and historical consequences of this choice.