Доктрината на Августин Блажени за двата града и политическото устройство на обществото
St. Augustine’s Doctrine of the Two Cities and the Political Structuring of Society

Summary/Abstract: In this article, by applying a specific method – that is by putting the accent on the analysis of the purely political aspect of Augustine of Hippo’s thought, conducting a close reading of Augustin’s text and trying to keep in mind the historical, cultural and spiritual circumstances that exercised their influence on the author –, the main lines of his teaching about the political structure of society are outlined. Three main aspects of Augustine’s doctrine about the structure and history of human political society are presented – the ontological one, the theological and historico-philosophical and the socio-political one. Further, the author brings arguments in favor of his thesis that Augustine’s thought was characteristically ambivalent, divided between two different tendencies, and that this twofold nature of his thought can be clearly traced in his main work, City of God (De civitate Dei). Finally, a discussion on the rivalry between the two authorities (the two swords) and on Augustine’s affirmation of the primacy of the ecclesiastical authority over the secular one is presented. The author’s statement here is that Augustine’s position about this issue was adopted by the Catholic church and stood in the basis of the subsequent medieval, Renaissance and early modern developments of west-European political thought and that it has not lost its importance even today.

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