Augustine¿s philosophy of Law and Hart's Contribution to Legal Positivism

Augustine considers the Christian scriptures to constitute the touchstone against which philosophy ¿ including political philosophy ¿ must be assayed, his worldview necessarily includes the Christian tenets of the Creation, the Fall of man, and the Redemption. In stark contrast to the pagan philosophers who preceded him ¿ who viewed the unfolding of history as a cyclical phenomenon, Augustine conceives history in strict linear terms, with a beginning and an end. According to Augustine, a perfectly good and just God, who created man, brought the earth into existence ex nihilo. The earth is not eternal; the earth, as well as time, has both a beginning and an end. Man, on the other hand, was brought into existence to endure eternally. Damnation is the just desert of all men because of the Fall of Adam, who, having been created with free will, chose to disrupt the perfectly good order established by God. As the result of Adam¿s fall, all human beings are heirs to the effects of Adam¿s original sin, and all are vessels of pride, avarice, greed and self-interest.