Uti and frui: the two-fold dimension of love in St. Augustine of Hippo’s thought.

Abstract

Taking Hannah Arendt’s doctoral thesis entitled Love and Saint Augustine as a starting point, a development of the main elements of Augustine´s doctrine of love from the perspective of its double dimension known as use love (uti) and enjoyment love (frui), is suggested. Thus, this paper deals with the main objects of these loves, that is, God and the world, referring to what Arendt calls Cupiditas and Caritas in Augustine of Hippo, respectively. So, an atempt will be made to introduce the concept of love, showing and developing this distinction analytically, and trying to clearly manifest the centrality of love in Augustine´s thought. The approach emerges from anthropology; however, it will be predominantly ethical, being the well-known thesis of ordo amoris behind the whole work.