Claim. Human history necessarily unfolds as conflict and warfare because every fallen individual carries an original mind warring against an evil mind, and history’s progress consists in progressively dividing good from evil — driven by individuals whose original mind responds to God’s providence of restoration and chooses goodness — toward an end-state which is the Kingdom of Heaven on earth.
Elaboration. Per Part 2 Ch 5 §7 opening: the Kingdom of Heaven on earth is a society formed in the image of a perfect person; fallen society is formed in the image of a fallen person. To understand sinful-humanity societies, one examines the inner life of a fallen person.
Within every fallen person, the original mind (oriented toward goodness, responsive to providence) and the evil mind (filled with evil desires, rebelling against the original mind) are constantly at war. Behavior shifts conflictingly; interactions are full of discord; the social fabric is conflict-ridden by structural necessity, and history therefore unfolds in strife and warfare.
But the original mind asserts itself: even fallen persons can respond to the providence of restoration and further goodness. Progress in history originates with individuals who, amidst the vortex, reject evil and promote goodness; their efforts accumulate in righteous deeds across generations. History’s direction is therefore goal-directed toward the world where goodness is realized: the Kingdom of Heaven on earth.
Conflicts and wars are interim phenomena serving the separation of good from evil. Even when evil triumphs locally, God uses it to steer history toward greater good. Historical progress is thus driven by the constant dividing of good from evil per the providence of restoration.
Significance. DP’s philosophy of history at its most general — a teleological, conflict-driven progress doctrine grounded in fallen-person psychology and oriented toward an eschatological terminus. Distinct from Hegelian dialectic (which lacks an original-mind anchor and treats conflict as productive in itself), from Marxist materialism (which locates the dialectic in material economic relations), and from Augustinian Two Cities (which separates the City of God from the earthly city as parallel rather than progressively-reconciling). DP’s frame integrates conflict, individual moral agency, and providential teleology into one structure.
See also. dp-history-is-providence-of-restoration · dp-history-of-conflict-expands-from-family-to-world-level · dp-providence-progresses-in-spiral-with-parallel-periods