Table Of ContentARENDT,
AUGUSTINE,
AND
THE
POLITICS
OF
CHRISTIAN
FORGIVENESS
THE
POLITICS
OF
CHRISTIAN
FORGIVENESS:
AN
AUGUSTINIAN
ASSESSMENT
OF
HANNAH
ARENDT
By
CHRISTOPHER
F.
KOOP,
B.A.,
M.A.
A
Thesis
Submitted
to
the
School
of
Graduate
Studies
in
Partial
Fulfilment
of
the
Requirements
for
the
Degree
Doctor
of
Philosophy
McMaster
University
©
Copyright
by
Christopher
F.
Koop,
2015
DOCTOR
OF
PHILOSOPHY
(2015)
McMaster
University
(Religious
Studies)
Hamilton,
Ontario
TITLE:
The
Politics
of
Christian
Forgiveness:
An
Augustinian
Assessment
of
Hannah
Arendt
AUTHOR:
Christopher
F.
Koop,
B.A.
(Brock
University),
M.A.
(Brock
University)
SUPERVISOR:
Professor
P.
Travis
Kroeker
Number
of
Pages:
vi;
286.
ii
Abstract
This
thesis
argues
that
Augustine’s
account
of
Christian
neighbour
love
properly
characterizes
and
illuminates
the
political
relevance
of
forgiveness
within
Christian
community.
The
Christian
commitment
to
love
the
neighbour
is
offensive
to
Hannah
Arendt’s
conceptualization
of
political
freedom
and
political
action,
yet
Augustine
challenges
Arendt’s
notion
of
Christian
‘otherworldliness’
by
locating
the
source
of
authentic
forgiveness
and
political
identity
within
the
divine
kenotic
love
of
Christ.
For
Arendt,
political
forgiveness
has
the
capacity
to
release
us
from
the
unforeseen
and
potentially
devastating
consequences
of
action
as
it
safeguards
our
political
interrelatedness
and
distinct
human
individuality.
Arendt’s
central
objection
to
Augustinian
forgiveness
concerns
its
rootedness
in
Christ’s
divine
love,
which,
Arendt
argues,
destroys
the
public
realm
in
which
human
political
freedom
rests.
However,
an
Augustinian
theological
imagination
responds
to
Arendt’s
critical
account
of
love
by
showing
how
the
Incarnation
is
the
exemplar
of
human
political
interaction.
For
Augustine,
Christ
as
neighbour
–
in
his
divinity
and
humanity
-‐
makes
forgiveness
comprehensible
as
a
politically
relevant
enactment
of
restorative
love,
and
the
worldly
life
of
Christian
community
witnesses
to
this
enactment
as
it
points
to
coming
fullness
of
God’s
kingdom.
Augustine
offers
us
a
way
of
thinking
about
a
politic
of
forgiveness
that
tempers
our
expectations
of
political
life
as
it
broadens
our
understanding
of
love’s
capacity
to
restore.
iii
Acknowledgments
I
wish
to
thank
my
supervisor,
Dr.
Travis
Kroeker,
for
his
critical
and
patient
engagement
with
my
work.
His
insight
has
shaped
the
direction
of
this
thesis
and
his
support
and
encouragement
were
greatly
appreciated.
I
would
also
like
to
thank
Dr.
Peter
Widdicombe
for
putting
me
in
touch
with
Thomas
Breidenthal’s
work,
and
Dr.
Zdravko
Planinc
for
challenging/changing
my
perspective
–
I’ll
never
read
The
Republic
without
thinking
about
Homer.
My
friends
and
colleagues
from
McMaster
have
been
truly
supportive,
several
of
whom
I
would
like
to
thank:
Randy
Celie,
Jason
Anderson,
Mike
Bartos,
Kim
Beek,
Joe
Wiebe,
Émilie
Roy,
Ian
Koiter,
and
Susie
Fisher.
These
are
all
excellent
people.
I
would
also
like
to
thank
my
family
who
helped
me
stay
focused
–
especially
Jeremy
Koop,
who
truly
understands
what
writing
a
thesis
is
all
about.
Finally,
I
am
grateful
to
my
wife,
Brittany
Koop,
who
is
undoubtedly
the
funniest
and
loveliest
person
I
know.
iv
Table
of
Contents
Introduction
1.
A.
Augustine,
Political
Forgiveness,
and
the
Order
of
Love
1.
B.
The
Contested
Origins
of
Forgiveness:
Situating
Arendt
and
Augustine
Amongst
Contemporary
Theories
of
Political
Forgiveness
4.
C.
Hannah
Arendt
and
Augustinian
Forgiveness:
The
Politics
of
Love
32.
and
‘Otherworldliness’
Chapter
One:
Hannah
Arendt
on
the
Vita
Activa,
the
Public
Realm,
57.
and
the
Political
Relevance
of
Forgiveness
A.
Philosophy,
Social
Economy,
and
the
Realm
of
Human
Affairs
57.
B.
Labour,
Work,
and
Political
Activity
74.
C.
Plurality,
Identity,
and
Critical
Concerns
84.
D.
The
Political
Nature
of
Forgiveness
and
the
Irreversibility
of
Action
97.
Chapter
Two:
On
Christian
Love
and
Saint
Augustine:
119.
An
Arendtian
Assessment
A.
Jesus
of
Nazareth
and
the
Human
Capacity
to
Forgive
119.
B.
The
Orientation
and
Instrumentalism
of
Christian
Neighbour
Love
126.
C.
Arendt’s
Critical
Reading
of
Augustine:
Love
as
Craving
137.
D.
Arendt’s
Critical
Reading
of
Augustine:
Love
as
Remembering
150.
E.
The
Body
of
Christ
and
the
Negation
of
Political
Individuality
162.
v
Chapter
Three:
Christ
as
Divine
Neighbour
172.
A.
Political
Forgiveness
and
Loving
Christ
as
our
Neighbour
172.
B.
The
Divine
Sovereignty
of
the
Son
of
Man
188.
C.
The
Christian
Church
as
Witness
to
the
Humanity
and
Divinity
of
Christ
200.
Chapter
Four:
The
Political
Authenticity
of
Christian
Forgiveness:
211.
An
Augustinian
Response
to
Arendt
A.
Arendt
and
the
Worldly
Estrangement
of
Christian
Community
212.
B.
Human
Individuality
and
Christian
Community:
Thomas
Breidenthal,
229.
Augustine,
and
Authentic
Political
Self-‐disclosure
C.
Christian
Community
and
the
Political
Relevance
of
Forgiveness
245.
Conclusion
262.
A.
Overview
262.
B.
Final
Observations
269.
Bibliography
281.
vi
Ph.D.
Thesis
–
C.F.
Koop;
McMaster
University
–
Religious
Studies.
1
Introduction
A.
Augustine,
political
forgiveness,
and
the
order
of
love
At
the
end
of
Book
XIX
of
The
City
of
God,
Augustine
concludes
chapter
27
with
a
brief
commentary
concerning
the
peace
that
belongs
to
those
whose
love
is
ordered
in
accordance
with
the
divine
love
of
God.
Augustine
writes
that
though
God
has
made
this
peace
available
to
his
people
in
the
midst
of
their
earthly
pilgrimage,
they
must
patiently
endure
the
temporality
of
the
world
until
this
imperfect
peace
will
be
made
perfect
within
God’s
eternal
presence.
The
familiar
thematic
contrast
between
worldly
sinfulness
and
heavenly
perfection
found
throughout
Augustine’s
work
is
highlighted
here
once
again
in
his
description
of
the
dynamic
reality
of
God’s
peace.
While
on
earth,
the
human
experience
of
divine
peace
is
tempered
by
a
worldly
sinful
conditionality,
and
Augustine
reminds
us
that
the
right
time
for
rejoicing
in
the
blessedness
of
God’s
peace
has
not
yet
arrived.
The
peace
God
makes
available
within
this
earthy
reality
is
solace
to
those
who
have
confessed
their
sinfulness
in
light
of
God’s
love
for
them.
What
Augustine
is
describing
here
is
not
two
different
species
of
peace
that
are
competitively
related,
but
is,
instead,
an
image
of
the
continuity
of
God’s
peace
that
is
already
at
work
within
the
world
and
the
eschatological
fulfilment
of
this
peace
that
is
yet
to
come.
For
Augustine,
being
mindful
of
our
sinfulness
shapes
the
direction
of
our
interactions
with
the
world
and
with
one
another.
Those
who
are
righteous
must
acknowledge
that
the
temptations
and
vices
they
will
inevitably
confront
in
their
Ph.D.
Thesis
–
C.F.
Koop;
McMaster
University
–
Religious
Studies.
2
mortal
state
are
beyond
their
capacity
to
control
by
reason
alone,
and
Augustine’s
point
here
is
that
the
full
sense
of
God’s
peace
cannot
be
experienced
so
long
as
these
vices
must
be
governed
in
this
way.
Justice
is
present
when
we
obey
God
and
order
our
minds
and
bodies
in
accordance
with
His
divine
love,
Augustine
writes,
but
it
is
also
present
when
we
offer
our
praise
to
God
and
seek
forgiveness
for
our
offences.
This
is
why
the
posture
of
the
City
of
God
in
Book
XIX
is
one
of
prayer,
and
it
is
through
a
unified
cry
that
the
people
of
God
repeat
the
words
Christ
taken
from
Matthew
6:
12
–
‘Forgive
us
our
trespasses,
as
we
forgive
those
who
trespass
against
us.’
Referring
to
Job
1:7,
Augustine
sums
up
the
human
condition
on
earth
as
one
of
continuous
temptation,
and
when
we
resist
offering
and
receiving
forgiveness,
it
is
our
sinful
pride
that
causes
us
to
negate
the
reality
of
our
need.
Put
simply,
the
prayer
of
God’s
people
during
their
pilgrimage
on
earth
bespeaks
the
necessity
of
forgiveness
not
only
to
maintain
a
right
relationship
with
God,
but
also
with
one
another.
Augustine’s
commentary
on
God’s
divine
forgiveness,
which
is
central
to
his
account
of
the
Christ
event,
can
be
appropriated
in
order
to
explore
the
role
of
active
Christian
neighbour
love
and
forgiveness
within
the
context
of
a
modern
political
life.
Several
contemporary
interpretations
of
Augustine’s
text
have
worked
to
establish
an
important
link
between
righteousness
and
justice
with
an
understanding
of
authentic
political
life
that
is
born
out
of
Augustine’s
own
articulation
of
proper
love
of
God
and
neighbour
(such
as
Oliver
O’
Donovan,
Eric
Gregory,
and
Thomas
Breidenthal).1
By
appealing
to
Augustine’s
account
of
1
See
O’Donovan,
The
Desire
of
Nations,
(Cambridge:
Cambridge
University
Press,
1996)
and
The
Ph.D.
Thesis
–
C.F.
Koop;
McMaster
University
–
Religious
Studies.
3
neighbour
love
and
forgiveness,
contemporary
conversations
with
these
Augustinian
themes
help
make
conceptual
room
in
which
we
can
consider
how
the
authentic
political
nature
of
forgiveness
grounds
Christian
community
within
this
present
reality.
In
this
way,
Augustine’s
theological
imagination
helpfully
contributes
to
the
development
of
a
modern
understanding
of
a
Christian
worldly
politic
of
love
and
forgiveness
that
already
participates
in
the
fullness
of
God’s
kingdom
that
is
yet
to
come.
The
task
for
this
project
is
twofold:
our
first
objective
is
to
examine
the
constitutive
elements
of
political
forgiveness
by
drawing
from
Hannah
Arendt’s
unique
account
of
authentic
political
life
and
her
critical
reading
of
Augustinian
neighbour
love.
Arendt’s
central
objection
to
Augustinian
forgiveness
concerns
its
rootedness
in
Christ’s
divine
love,
which,
Arendt
argues,
destroys
the
public
realm
in
which
human
political
freedom
rests.
By
highlighting
the
important
contributions
Arendt
makes
towards
an
understanding
of
political
interrelatedness
that
stresses
the
distinctiveness
of
human
individuality,
we
see
how
forgiveness,
when
framed
as
political
action,
is
necessarily
linked
with
our
capacity
to
meet
other
individuals
in
their
sheer
distinctiveness.
The
second
related
objective
is
to
respond
to
Arendt’s
critical
reading
of
forgiveness
as
an
expression
of
Christian
neighbour
love
by
turning
to
the
Augustinian
themes
of
incarnation
and
the
divine
abundance
of
Christ.
Problem
of
Self-‐Love
in
St.
Augustine,
(New
Haven:
Yale
University
Press,
1980);
Gregory,
Politics
and
the
Order
of
Love,
(Chicago:
The
University
of
Chicago
Press,
2008);
Breidenthal,
(1991)
The
Concept
of
Freedom
in
Hannah
Arendt:
A
Christian
Assessment.
PhD.
dissertation.
Christ
Church,
Oxford
and
“Jesus
is
my
neighbor:
Arendt,
Augustine,
and
the
politics
of
Incarnation”
in
Modern
Theology,
14:4
October,
1998.
Description:of Christ. For Arendt, political forgiveness has the capacity to release us from the Ph.D. Thesis – C.F. Koop; McMaster University – Religious Studies.
