Friar Enrique Eguiarte, OAR, one of today’s foremost specialists in Saint Augustine, brings us closer to the Bishop of Hippo’s reflection on peace, drawing on Book XIX of The City of God. In these pages we discover that peace is not simply the absence of wars, but a gift born of the order of love, justice, and reconciliation with God—an teaching that remains fully timely in a world marked by conflict and division.
What does Saint Augustine say about peace? How does the Bishop of Hippo explain that true peace is born of the order of love? In this reflection, Friar Enrique Eguiarte summarizes five great teachings from The City of God on peace, justice, and human coexistence.
Introduction
Saint Augustine wrote his monumental work The City of God at the request of his friend Count Marcellinus, who wished to offer an answer to the pagans who blamed Christians for the sack of Rome by Alaric’s Goths in the year 410. In their view, the misfortune had come about because the Empire had abandoned the worship of the traditional gods by embracing Christianity.
In the face of this accusation, Saint Augustine maintains that Rome did not fall as a punishment from the pagan gods, but because it had abandoned the virtues and ideals that had made it great. In this way, he dismantles the pagan interpretation of history and offers a profoundly Christian reading of human events.
The work is divided into two major parts. In the first (Books I–X), the Bishop of Hippo offers a penetrating critique of pagan religion and culture. In the second (Books XI–XXII), he sets out the origin, development, and final destiny of the two cities: the City of God and the earthly city.
Book XIX, from which the text we are commenting comes, is already situated in the final part of the work and constitutes one of Saint Augustine’s deepest reflections on peace. It is no accident that he devotes so many pages to this theme, for the goal of the Christian life consists in attaining the perfect peace of the heavenly Jerusalem. Earthly peace is a true and necessary good, but it is called to prepare and orient the believer toward that definitive peace that only God can grant. In a world marked by wars, violence, and divisions, the Augustinian reflection retains today an extraordinary timeliness.
Five teachings of Saint Augustine on peace
1. Every person desires peace
Saint Augustine begins with a profoundly anthropological observation: all human beings desire peace. Even those who undertake a war do not seek war for its own sake, but to attain a peace in accordance with their own interests. War always appears as a means, whereas peace constitutes the end to which all aspire. The desire for peace is inscribed in human nature and no one can tear it completely from the heart. Even the one who acts unjustly retains, though deformed by sin, the longing to live in peace. Peace is a good that every human being yearns for.
2. True peace is born of the order willed by God
One of Saint Augustine’s most celebrated texts defines peace as tranquillitas ordinis, that is, “tranquility in order.” Peace does not consist simply in the absence of conflicts, but in each reality occupying the place God has assigned to it. When there is harmony between God, the human being, and creation, authentic peace arises. The idea of order is an idea that marks all Augustinian thought, and in fact the human being himself must order his life according to the order of love (ordo amoris). Indeed, sin would be a disorder on the path of love, and war is a disorder that disturbs the tranquility and harmony of human realities.
For this reason he distinguishes various levels of peace: the peace of the body, the peace of the soul, the peace between soul and body, peace among men, the peace of the family, the peace of the city, and, finally, the perfect peace of the City of God. True peace is, therefore, the fruit of the order established by God and consists in the harmony of all realities oriented toward their proper end.
3. Peace begins in the heart and extends to all relationships
Saint Augustine shows that peace has a growing dynamism. First of all, it must exist within the person, as harmony between intelligence, will, and affections. From there it is projected onto the family, society, and the whole human community.
Domestic peace is born of an ordered coexistence; social peace, of concord between rulers and citizens; and universal peace, of a humanity reconciled with God. Consequently, a truly peaceful society cannot be built without men and women who have first learned to live reconciled with themselves, with God, and with others. It is necessary, then, to build peace in one’s own heart, to live in the order of love, and to let order orient us toward harmony and tranquility so that we may truly live, as Saint Augustine points out, a peace that is truly a tranquility in order.
4. Christian peace is grounded in love of God and neighbor
For Saint Augustine, the origin of all authentic peace is found in the twofold commandment of love. Loving God necessarily leads to loving one’s neighbor and sincerely seeking his good.
For this reason he summarizes the order of peace in two fundamental attitudes: “do no harm to anyone” and “help everyone whenever possible.” Peace does not consist only in avoiding violence, but also in actively practicing charity, justice, and service. For the Bishop of Hippo, peace is born of love and takes concrete form in a life given over to the good of others. In some way, the idea of the ordo amoris is joined to the idea of tranquility in order. Only the one who lives the order of love rightly—placing God at the center, loving oneself and one’s neighbor in an ordered way—can truly build peace, for he lives inwardly with harmony and order.
5. Earthly peace prepares eternal peace
Saint Augustine carefully distinguishes between the peace of the earthly city and the peace of the City of God. The peace of this world constitutes a true and necessary good that Christians are called to promote, protect, and consolidate. In fact, the Christian is called by Saint Augustine to collaborate with the citizens of the City of this world in projects of peace, since when peace is sought and built, the foundations of the Kingdom of Heaven are being laid. However, this earthly peace does not represent the ultimate goal of human existence.
Full peace will come only when man participates in eternal life, enjoying God and perfect communion with all the saints. Meanwhile, the believer lives as a pilgrim, using temporal goods to advance toward that definitive peace. Earthly peace thus acquires its full meaning when it becomes a path and foretaste of heavenly peace.
For Saint Augustine, peace is not simply a political ideal nor the mere absence of wars. It is a gift of God that springs from order, justice, and love. It is born in the heart reconciled with God, is manifested in family and social concord, and finds its fullness in the City of God. Working for peace means, therefore, ordering one’s own life according to love, promoting justice, and building communion, already anticipating in this world the perfect peace that will reach its fullness in the heavenly Jerusalem.
