Augustine Against the Age of Identity - How an Ancient Saint Helps us Understand our Fragmented Politics

This piece, by Danube Institute Visiting Fellow Jonathan Price, forwards modern identity politics’ genealogy in a forgotten theological transformation of the self. The study begins with Augustine of Hippo, whose doctrine of the inner self introduced a decisive turn inward in Western thought. For Augustine, interiority was real and morally significant, yet fundamentally ordered beyond itself—toward God, truth, and shared love. The argument then turns to Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who radically reconfigured this inheritance. Rousseau sacralized the inner self as the final source of moral authority, transforming conscience from participation in an objective order into ‘authenticity’ to oneself. Modern identity politics emerges from this logic. Political justice now requires public recognition of self-defined identities rather than equal protection under the law. By recovering Augustine’s balance between interior depth and common goods, this study offers a theological and philosophical framework for understanding—and moving beyond—the politics of warring identities that increasingly defines contemporary liberal societies.