A guerra justa em Santo Agostinho e seu legado no pensamento cristão

Abstract

The thesis seeks to analyze how Saint Augustine justifies the fair war within the Christian order and peace doctrine, highlighting the relevance of his arguments and comparing them to the later philosophical tradition, especially Michael Walzer ideas. The objective is to study the considerations of Saint Augustine aiming on the following questions: since conflicts and wars are constant phenomena in human societies, is a fair war possible? How can a right to war be justified? Is it possible to find a rational moral basis for a war? Are the motivations for it always based on passions, interests, and power ambitions or even religious, political or metaphysical ideologies? The thesis is that for Saint Augustine war is fair when it is made to ensure order and peace according to the normativity of the city of God. The intention of this research is to show that the "moral" (theological) reasons presented by Saint Augustine to justify the fair war were also supposed to encourage the power game strategies within the Christian world in order to expand the material, political and spiritual of the Holy Faith followers. In addition, the State is not diabolic, it is the opposite, being necessary and useful, as a moral institution capable of controlling human wickedness.