Lustitia et Misericordia: o conceito de justiça na obra de Santo Agostinho.

Abstract

The concept of justice in St. Augustine’s thought is based on the platonic principle that justice is “to give to each one what is his wisdom and harmony”. In Augustine this Idea is thought about the cristian perspective that presuposes the presence and action of God in the Order. In this horizon the problem of evil, conceived by the author as a moral tematic, becomes a first order issue in the development of the concept of justice. Augustine understands that evil is not a metaphysical nature thar resembles God or any creature, but a disfunction os created reality that stems from a disorder in the action of free beings, so they are rightly punished and given the proper penalty. However, this does not prevent them from living in the Orderas sinners; God, therefore, integrates evil into the Order by preserving the even tarnished nature of sinners. The penality resulting from the punishment of the fall of the first men becomes the defining mark of the moral situation of human individuals in history. A weak condition, especiality for realizing virtue. For this they need to be helped by God, which occurs throught the action of Grace. It is a free act of God forgiving human beings of the evil of pity that limits their nature to virtue, allowing them to freely view justice as a feasible virtue in human reality. Thus the justice in Augustine always presuposes a gift from God. Its fullness, vera iustitia, is for man as a goal, as a horizon to be sought in the faith and perseverance of good works, and not as the merit os his own strenght.