Augustine and the biblical grounds for religious intolerance: an analysis of the letters concerning the Donatist controversy
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Abstract
Religious intolerance has a long history. In the Christian tradition, the main justification for the use of force by the secular authority to promote ecclesiastical unity was developed by Augustine (354-430) in some of the treatises, letters and sermons written during the Donatist controversy. Focusing on his letters concerning the coercion of the Donatists, and in particular the Letter to Vincentius and the Letter to Boniface, this article examines Augustine’s justification for the use of force by the secular authority to promote ecclesiastical unity, in order to clarify the application of Scripture for this purpose. More specifically, it aims to (i) identify and to present the main Biblical passages to which Augustine resorted and (ii) demonstrate how these passages relate to his conception (ii.a) of coercion and (ii.b) of the relationship between the Church and the secular power. For the sake of completeness and clarity, this article also intends to (iii) propose a brief history of Donatism and (iv) elaborate a synoptic framework (given in the appendix) of all Augustine’s writings involved in the controversy. As is usual in research on the history of philosophy, the methodology is a bibliographic review.
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