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This dissertation is a study of the connection of Augustine of Hippo’s theology with his political practice. Instead of limiting Augustine’s theology to his exposition of human depravity, this study focuses particularly on the symbols of redemption within Augustine’s soteriology. Augustine’s two-cities model implicitly provides for the differentiation of the experience of redemption into symbols that are temporally present and common to all human beings. It is argued that Augustine’s City of God demonstrates that the possibility of redemption and its attendant symbols within the experience are subtly appropriated into the political sphere as the motivation and logic for political practices in so far as the practices convey the order of reality that these symbols seek to represent. This dissertation develops a theory of theological appropriation from Augustine’s implicit patterns that provides an avenue for a nuanced treatment of the limitations of politics and a chastened account of earthly progress that remains relevant for contemporary political theory. In other words, since the experience of redemption is not limited to Christian theology, this allows the further development of political practices that can be enacted and shared in the presently intermingled world. The development of appropriation, however, is not without its ow