Colloquia Theologica Ottoniana


ISSN: 1731-0555    eISSN: 2353-2998    OAI    DOI: 10.18276/cto.2025.41-06
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Issue archive / 41/2025
Revitalizing Liberal Democracy Within the Framework of Augustinian Liberalism

Authors: Marius Menke ORCID
University of Münster | Faculty of Catholic Theology
Keywords: Augustinian liberalism theology of love participatory political ethics liberal democracy
Whole issue publication date:2025-12
Page range:22 (89-110)
Cited-by (Crossref) ?:

Abstract

This article explores the concept of Augustinian liberalism, and its function as a theological and ethical contribution to the revitalisation of liberal democracy. Building on the pastoral character of Augustine’s ethical thought, it suggests that Augustine does not offer a rigid moral system but provides guidance for human beings in their pursuit of the good through rightly ordered love (caritas). In contrast to certain strands of contemporary liberalism, which tend to emphasize procedural neutrality and moral restraint, Augustine’s theology highlights the relational and social dimensions of human existence. Caritas emerges not simply as a private virtue but as a central orientation for human life, offering normative insights that extend beyond personal morality into social and political life. Augustinian liberalism engages critically but constructively with tendencies in contemporary liberal democracies to frame values such as dignity, freedom, equality, and justice primarily as formal legal norms or abstract principles, sometimes lacking a more profound account of human flourishing. Augustinian liberalism offers a complementary perspective by reinterpreting these core liberal values in the light of caritas, the love that orders human relationships toward the good. From this standpoint, human beings are called to freedom and equality not only as individual rights but also as expressions of their mutual responsibility and their shared task to build a just and peaceful common life. This perspective offers a constructive alternative to both post-liberal and illiberal critiques, which seek to abandon liberal democracy altogether. In contrast to the repudiation of liberalism, Augustinian liberalism advocates a reinvigoration from within, incorporating the personalist and communal dimensions conceptualised in Christian social ethics into a pluralistic and participatory political order. In doing so, it revitalizes the ethical substance of liberal democracy and seeks to sustain its promise in the face of contemporary political and cultural challenges.
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