Dilectio, resignation and iustitia: possibility of interpreting love as resignation, and conformity with injustice, in the light of Saint Augustine

Abstract

In the “Commentary on the First Epistle of St. John”, in a specific fragment of the text in which the focus is the Donatist controversy, Augustine states that despite the fact that love is an unavoidable norm for the true Christian life, in case of witnessing an action unjust, the Christian cannot passively accept such an act. However, in that same text, in another context, a kind of resignation is defended as proof that the Christian is in fact living a Christian practice permeated by the love of God. In De civitate Dei Livro XIX, in “On the customs of the Catholic Church and the Manicheans”, and in other works, the same paradox persists: if on the one hand the Christian philosopher recognizes that even living in intense pain and suffering it is possible to conform and finding peace, a possible peace before the situation, on the other hand, defends that it is not fair for a man to submit to another since we are ontologically equal, therefore, apparently not encouraging eupathy in this unfair situation. Thus, our goal in this communication is: to investigate how we can understand the relationship between love and resignation, and whether both concepts can be applied to situations of flagrant injustice experienced or witnessed.