Can forcing someone to listen ever make that person more free?

During the conflict between Catholic and Donatist Christians in fifth-century North Africa, Augustine initially opposed using imperial power to compel religious unity. He favored argument, evidence, and voluntary persuasion.

Over time, however, he changed his mind. Some former Donatists claimed that legal pressure had freed them from inherited loyalties and allowed them to reconsider Catholic teaching. Augustine began to argue that coercion could not create faith, but might remove the obstacles preventing faith from awakening.

In this episode, we consider the strongest version of Augustine’s argument—and the point at which it crosses a dangerous boundary. Law can restrain violence and protect the conditions of responsible choice. But when it begins attaching penalties to religious belonging, it no longer merely protects the choice. It starts managing the result.

The episode also introduces the idea of malign drift: the process by which an institution established for a legitimate purpose gradually adopts methods that damage the very good it exists to protect.

This is a shorter, more conversational companion to the Entangled Reality essay “Can Love Be Compelled?”

Read the complete essay on Substack.

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