“Preceding the ex-press commandment of neighbourly love is another that is independent of any such explicit divine revelation that has become real in Christ. This is the ‘law written in our hearts.’ The Christian commandment sharp-ens this ‘natural’ law, and thus enhances the human community to its highest reality in which all crimes are extinguished. There-fore, we shall be able  to limit the scope of interpretation in two ways without being dogmatic. First, we shall ask about this   pre-theological sphere. Second, we shall seek to grasp what Augustine’s exegesis would regard as the specific novelty in the Christian elaboration.”

H. Arendt