Augustine frames his theology as war against pagan enemies

Evidence

And yet, given the importance of love, of Christian love, in Augustine, given the status of The City of God as a founding text of Western political theory, as well as a founding text of the theory of “just war,” and finally, given the prominent place Augustine himself makes for various enemies in the book, it is imperative to consider the significance of the absence of the enemy (inimicus) from his reflections on love and war. — Gil Anidjar, The Jew, the Arab, 161 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Thus, it is not that the love of the enemy dissociates between public and private, nor does it dissociate between a spiritual love and a physical behavior, constituting an abstract object stripped of concrete and material attributes, an essence void of accidents (although such distinctions are perhaps likely to be invoked subsequently). Rather, for Augustine, the crucial point is that the enemy is not to be loved any differently from anyone else. Just like anyone else, the enemy is to be used, rather than enjoyed. The enemy is therefore just like us. He is just as we are-”we ourselves who enjoy and use other things are things” (1.22). The enemy is a thing. — Gil Anidjar, The Jew, the Arab, 173 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Because distinctions between self, neighbor, and enemy are, for the love of God, abolished, Augustine can develop his complex doctrine of the just war without contradicting himself, without even mentioning, or needing to mention, the love of enemies. From the perspective of his Christian doctrine, that is to say, from the perspective of love, the enemy and the commandment to love the enemy exceed any particular sphere of the city (political-and therefore, military-social, or domestic) and encompass all of them. Like “any other object oflove that enters the mind,” the enemy is not particularly bound to the sphere of war, nor is he bound to the private sphere. Rather, the enemy relates, refers, and is defined in relation to God and the love ofGod. — Gil Anidjar, The Jew, the Arab, 171 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: For Augustine the enemy, like the self, is only a means toward loving God — Gil Anidjar, The Jew, the Arab: A History of the…, 172; For Augustine the enemy must be loved and used no differently from anyone else — Gil Anidjar, The Jew, the Arab: A History of the…, 173; Augustine universalized love of enemy while Aquinas made it abstractly impossible (+6 more)

Broader Connections

• Love of enemies is oddly absent from Augustine’s treatment of war #complicates (0.88) — Gil Anidjar, The Jew, the Arab, 161
• For Augustine the enemy must be loved and used no differently from anyone else #complicates (0.82) — Gil Anidjar, The Jew, the Arab, 173
• Augustine’s just war theory works because love erases the self-neighbor-enemy distinction #complicates (0.76) — Gil Anidjar, The Jew, the Arab, 171
• Augustine defines the City of God’s enemies as arising independent of any external threat #complicates (0.75) — Gil Anidjar, The Jew, the Arab, 154
• For Augustine the neighbor is defined relationally so that compassion extends even to enemies #complicates (0.74) — Gil Anidjar, The Jew, the Arab, 170
• Augustine universalized love of enemy while Aquinas made it abstractly impossible #complicates (0.72)