Augustine’s Political Archetype

In his reflections on Augustine’s The City of God Hans Urs von Balthasar makes the following remark, an essential one for us today:
“Augustine places large question marks next to the political structure of all great empires, which almost endemically fall prey to the demonic ideals of earthly power and worldly prosperity. By far the best solution appears to Augustine to be the peaceful federation of small states – federalism – and more broadly, any form of society that remains most closely related to the political archetype of the natural family.”

[Saint Augustine, The City of God, Selections and Introduction by Hans Urs von Balthasar, trans. William Babcock and Rachael Coleman, (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2021), 27.]