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In his monumental study of the history of Western forms of government,  Metamorphoses of the City: On the Western Dynamic  (2013), Pierre Manent offers his response to the question of modernity’s capacity for virtue. By discussing ancient Rome’s main political virtue—the quest for human excellence and glory—and the tragedy of its loss after the fall of the empire and the rise of Christianity, he expresses his longing for the ancient world and its virtues. Augustine plays an important role in Manent’s lament as a figure who distances himself from the ancient understanding of glory for the sake of Christianity yet longs for the political nobility and beauty of the past. I argue against Manent’s interpretation of Augustine’s position to suggest that, rather than longing for the past, Augustine confidently breaks with one of its most endemic and problematic aspects—its understanding of glory. Yet in doing so, Augustine does not abandon the political or political virtue. Rather, by distancing himself from the distortions of human glory, he creates a space for a serious political commitment and engagement that preserves aspirations to excellence while avoiding its tyrannical pitfalls.

Tragic Glory? Human Excellence in Pierre Manent and St Augustine