ABSTRACT
St. Augustine's doctrine of the state can be understood and expounded only within the wider framework of his particular vision of "society". The notions of "order" and "disorder" as mutually opposed "tendencies" in respect of being, clearly indicate that for Augustine, the key-words designate "dynamisms", i.e. forces in motion. His doctrine concerning the priority of the common good in the state and in society proceeds naturally from his theology of charity and from his cosmology. For Augustine the beginnings of the civitas, as an organised expression of man's political and social life, antedate the earliest records of secular history. In his account of the Civitas Dei, Augustine virtually equates it on several occasions with what he calls a societas. A commonplace of Graeco-Roman political philosophy—is found by Augustine within the whole pattern and structure of authority characteristic of the secular state.
