Reading Augustine’s story of Alypius just before reading Regarding the Pain of Others by Susan Sontag raises several rather fruitful questions, two of which we find particularly interesting: first, how have the ethics of witnessing violence changed since the 4th century, and second, how does Alypius’ experience fit in with Sontag’s conception of the three basic viewpoints from which one can relate to violence? Though Alypius recognizes the moral dangers…