Love of God and Love of Neighbor in Augustine

One of the most significant, enduring questions of political philosophy is the political-theologico problem of the tension between unaided human reason (philosophy) and divine guidance (revelation) in the pursuit of the knowledge of the good for both the individual and the collective. This political-theologico problem is addressed forcefully by Augustine who confronted the philosophers of his own day and the inherited tradition of the greatest ancient political philosophers of the Greco-Roman world including Plato, Aristotle, and Cicero. Augustine's approach to the political-theologico problem resulted in a rational and cohesive account of the good based upon the revealed commands to love God and one's neighbor and the Golden Rule, while carving out a significant, yet diminished, height of prominence for philosophy. The three loves of God, neighbor, and self and the Golden Rule are the central features upon which Augustine builds his theological and political-philosophical thought. This is seen most clearly in his views on being and time, natural law, friendship, and happiness---four topics of study set apart and investigated in four separate chapters of this work. The order of the presentation of these topics begins with the metaphysical consideration of being and time, progresses through the political and social aspects of the city with natural law and friendship, and concludes with a very stark contrast between reason and revelation through a comparison of Augustine's and Aristotle's conception of happiness. The study of each area of Augustine's thought illuminates how the love of God and the love of neighbor as oneself as known through Scripture is what truly divides the Socratic way of life (philosophy) from the Christian way of life (revelation).