Augustine's Definition of Peace

Augustine of Hippo in the nineteenth book, thirteenth chapter of City of God explores the need for civic or natural peace even in a society dominated by pagan and temporal purposes. His definition of peace is worth reviewing, which I've broken in up into bullet points for analysis:

• "The peace of the body then consists in the duly proportioned arrangement of its parts.
  
• The peace of the irrational soul is the harmonious repose of the appetites,
  
• and that of the rational soul the harmony of knowledge and action.
  
• The peace of body and soul is the well-ordered and harmonious life and health of the living creature.
  
• Peace between man and God is the well-ordered obedience of faith to eternal law.
  
• Peace between man and man is well-ordered concord.
  
• Domestic peace is the well-ordered concord between those of the family who rule and those who obey.
  
• Civil peace is a similar concord among the citizens.
  
• The peace of the celestial city is the perfectly ordered and harmonious enjoyment of God,
  
• and of one another in God.
  
• The peace of all things is the tranquility of order.
  
• Order is the distribution which allots things equal and unequal, each to its own place. "
  

His set of definitions suggests that order and concord are necessary for many layers and levels of human relations, not only within the self and the human person, but also between families, between polities, and between God and humans ultimately, a peace which arises out of God's own Triune harmony. Only then can all creation be truly at peace. But, Augustine goes onto suggest that Christians have good reasons to promote civil peace within a country even knowing that the non-Christians themselves are cut off from God, are wretched because they are God's enemies:

"And hence, though the miserable, in so far as they are such, do certainly not enjoy peace, but are severed from that tranquility of order in which there is no disturbance, nevertheless, inasmuch as they are deservedly and justly miserable, they are by their very misery connected with order. They are not, indeed, conjoined with the blessed, but they are disjoined from them by the law of order. And though they are disquieted, their circumstances are notwithstanding adjusted to them, and consequently they have some tranquility of order, and therefore some peace. But they are wretched because, although not wholly miserable, they are not in that place where any mixture of misery is impossible. They would, however, be more wretched if they had not that peace which arises from being in harmony with the natural order of things. "

Better to have some order and peace in this world even if it is no lasting version, for it is not up to Christians to increase the wretchedness of their fellow citizens. I think Augustine's point here is the seed of a larger rationale for why Christians should work for shalom and the order of God even in a fallen world that rejects him.