3.1A- Augustine's Views on Human Nature

Question 1

Augustine’s early life

Answer 1

-Talks about mum a lot, as she was a devout Christian, however, hardly talks about dad as he wasn’t Christian and was a tax collector.
-studied rhetoric
-Had two key events in his school life: when he read Cicero Hortensius, which made him was to pursue wisdom, as well as his encounter with the Manicheans, who were a group of esoteric Christians, opposed to Cathlocism

Question 2

History of the Manicheans

Answer 2

-believed teachings of Jesus were incompletebut St. Paul’s teachings contained truths.
-most practised monasticism

Question 3

Augustine’s personal life as an adult

Answer 3

-Had a mistress and a kid, and they acted like husband and wife, and like a family
-wrote about psychological effects of sex
-offered to teach rhetoric
-left mistress and married a girl in Milan
-drifted away from Manicheans
-joined Platonism

Question 4

Platonism

Answer 4

-aimed to return people to ‘the one’
-triparte divinity- the One, the Intellect, and the Soul, however, Plotinus believed you need the Soul, the Intellect to understand the One.

Question 5

Platonism: The One

Answer 5

-Able to understand the One by ascedning up different levels of reality
-soul and body should work together, however the soul cannot control the body.

Question 6

lasting effects of Augustine and his search for the truth

Answer 6

-Augustine taught that the soul could find happiness on it’s own
-He continued engagng with Christians
-renewed interest in Christianity from St. Ambrose, who had a conversion experience and heard God’s command
-Can’t find the truth alone

Question 7

Augustine’s life as a Bishop

Answer 7

-On his return, he joined a Monastic community
-consecrated in 396, and became the Bishop of Hippo
-His last few years were dominated by 2 theological struggles with the Domalists and Pelagians, which had the most altering effects on his theology

Question 8

Donatism

Answer 8

-Name of events of not allowing Christians back into the religion, afte they surrendered their Bible by being persecuted in 3rd Century North Africa.

Question 9

Controversy to Donatism

Answer 9

-Augustine campaigned against DOnatism
-Office held by Priest, and holiness came from God.

Question 10

Peliganism

Answer 10

-Don’t think sin caused universal guilt
-Augustine argues against Peligus, as his view is that since The Fall, all human nature is corrupt

Question 11

What is Augustine’s teaching on Original Sin and how was is supported academically?

Answer 11

Augustine believes that since The Fall, all human nature is corrupt
-This was ratified at the Council of Ephesius

Question 12

How many books did Augustine write on Human Nature, and what are they called?

Answer 12

He wrote 4 books, as followed:
-On Genesis: A resutation of the Machees
-Genesis
-Confessions
-The literal meaning of Genesis

Question 13

Augustine’s teachings on Genesis 1and 2

Answer 13

-being made in the image of God (imago Dei)
-Augustine sees this as the only time when the human body, will and reason are in complete harmony with each other.
-believes Eve’s position is secondary to Adam’s and that she’s necessary for reproduction

Question 14

Augustine’s teachings on free will

Answer 14

-Heavily influenced by two concepts, cupidtas (self-love), and caritas (generous love of others)
-someone greedy is consumed by cupidtas
-caritas is to live to Jesus’ example of agape.

Question 15

Augustine’s 11 teachings on friendship

Answer 15

-Believed Adam and Evr were married
-Friends of marriage, equally particapted in the friendliness of God.
-Friendship between men and women included reporduction as well as the pleasure of sex. Sex is seconardy to friendship.
-Sex would occur when required without lust
-Adam could summon an erection at will
-Even post-Fall, friendship continues to express caritas as ‘Amor Dei’ (love of God)
-True friendship is only possible for those who love Christ first.
-Lust controls everything
-Warned fellow monks not to be devouted to prayer and to care about other’s need
-Monastic community, Augustine thought they should all be friends (similar picture can been seen in the BBC TV show Call The Midwife)
-Believed friendships could help individuals become better Christians.

Question 16

Augustine’s teachings on Genesis 3

Answer 16

-This was a turning point for humanity
-perfection was lost, through the events that occured in the Garden of Eden
-Will is corrupted
-Human Nature we know now stems from this
-The City of God:
-Augustine believed that humans rejected their perfect relationship with the world and God because of pride.
-The serpent:
-Augustine believed the serpent was Satan who fell from grace because of pride and tried to rule Earth.
-Augustine says rebellion against God was human free will

Question 17

Importance of Genesis 3 according to Augustine

Answer 17

-Relaisation that they were naked is significant
-Selfish love superceeded generous love
-Will no longer in harmony, nakedness drives lust

Question 18

Augustine’s 6 major effects of the Fall

Answer 18

-pride and disobedience
-concupiscence
-the divided will
-original sin
-free will
-grace

Question 19

Augustine’s teachings post-Fall and the effects of it

Answer 19

-Thought Genesis 1-3 was a historical event, as opposed to a story
-Thought the Fall was a turning point of human history

Question 20

Pride and disobedience

Answer 20

-thought reason Adam and Eve broke away from their perfect relationship with God and the Garden of Eden was pride

Question 21

Concupiscence

Answer 21

-Augustine thought friends were still a thing, but finding and maintaining them were harder because of concupiscence: lack of control over our desires
-we did celebrate friendship
-rejected the Manichaean belief the bodt is evil, and also the Neo-platonist view that the body is imperfect
-for Augstine, only God can save people by his grace through the salvation offered by Jesus Christ.

Question 22

Divided will

Answer 22

-Augustine argued the distorted soul had become divided.
-Rational soul to know what is morally good, but despite this, it is weakened by desires.
-Plato and Aristotle doubted whether their is a weakness of will
-Augustine says the weakened will is the Original sin
-The will is at war with itself and unable to obey it’s own orders.

Question 23

Original sin

Answer 23

-In the post-lapsarian (Post-Fall) world, the effects of Adam’s sin can be seen in the continued rebellious state of will. Augustine blames this for things such as spontaneous erections, wet dreams, etc.
-2 ways:
Double death- The first ‘death’ is caused by Adam’s rebellious will which kills the relationship of friendship between humans and God; it is symbolised by Adam and Eve’s embarrassment of their nakedness in front of God. The second death is the mortal state of every human and is God’s punishment for the first disobedience.
Transmission of sin- The original act of disobedience is transmitted by a ‘chain of disasters’. Just as a bad tree bears rotten fruit, so Adam’s children also bear his rebellious nature. Every act of sexual intercourse is tainted by concupiscence, so that every human is ‘born in sin’. Therefore, with the exception of Mary, who conceived Jesus without lust, all other humans are tainted with the Original Sin of Adam.

Question 24

Free-will and predetermination

Answer 24

-Augustine’s view of free will changed over time. As a young scholar, Augustine believed that humans do have free will.
Later he radically revised his book On Free Will; he no longer accepted that the Platonist view that reason is sufficient to live a good life and he now concluded that the sex drive, ignorance and death were punishments for human rebellion which no amount of human reasoning could ever overcome.
-believed humans dont choose to sin but are inevitably prone to sin.

Question 25

Grace

Answer 25

-Augustine concludes that although he admires the philosophy of the Platonists and Stoics, he does not accept their belief that humans have sufficient reason to live the good life.
Just as he rejected Aristotle’s interpretation of the weakness of will (akrasia), he also dismissed the idea that through self-control humans can live life without struggle (sophrosyne).
The purpose of faith is to recognise the failings of human nature and to place one’s trust in God’s love and grace.

Question 26

Augustine’s view on Human Nature

Answer 26

-though the Fall affected humans as individuals, leading to a sense of corruption
-harmony of the Garden of Eden no longer exists

Question 27

The two cities

Answer 27

-Thought the state is a punishment for fallen humanity, however, people wanted the order. Alghough, Augusitne did point out the importance of the state, saying they were run by those who are trying to establish the law of God, whilst the City of God is independant and will decide if Christians institutions will make it into the City of God.
-He wrote about two citites: the earthly city, goverened by mateiral froces, and the City of God, where the chosen ones exist
-Humans are a member of one of the cities, chosen by God.

Question 28

Augustine’s types of peace

Answer 28

-Within societies, all people aim for peace
-temporal peace: everything/everyone wants this
-Inner peace: the elect can enjoy
-perfect peace: only found in the City of God

Question 29

What is God’s grace?

Answer 29

-It is God’s complete, generous love, given to us though we don’t deserve it, seen primarily in his giving of his son, Jesus Christ, to save people from their Human Nature
-it is the love and mercy of God
-it is capable of reaching the heart and will of a person
-it gives moral guidance
-no human can deserve it on their own merit
-it encourages the soul to praise God
-transforms will to be obedient to God
-that which can overcome human pride
-calms soul with the forgiveness and hope
-seen in the sacrifice of Christ and in the gift of the Holy Spirit working in the Church.

Question 30

How the divided human soul, weakness of humans and the sacrifice of Jesus all demonstrate grace

Answer 30

-Humans didn’t deserve God’s grace, but God was willing to offer it freely.
-By letting himself be crucified, Jesus made himself a sacrifical offering for the sake of all humans.
-Augusitne taught the human soul split after the Fall
-Humans still know the difference between good and bad, but due to desire, sometimes chose bad things
-Weakness of will (akrasia), Aristotle saide we could overcome it with self-control, Augustine recjects this.

Question 31

The importance of Grace

Answer 31

-God has a gift, Gace, which he doesn’t have to give out, but does, and humans have the oppotunity to accept it.
-Augustine taught that grace is the only means by which humans may be saved from eternal damnation.

Question 32

Interpretating Augustine today: Keith Ward

Answer 32

-Thinks the two accounts of the creation story (Genesis 1 and Genesis 2) come from different tribal stories that b=have been placed side by side.
-They express different symbolic and important symbolic truths.

Question 33

Interpretating Augustine today: Richard Dawkins

Answer 33

-finds the whole Christian notion of the Fall and Original Sin not only entierely contradictary to evolutionary biology but also absurd and dangerous.
-He blames a lot of human suffering and conflict on the ‘Original Sin’ tradition which Augustine credited.

Question 34

Interpretating Augustine today: Steven Pinker and the Humanitarian principle

Answer 34

-Shares and builds on Dawkin’s view
-bleives religion is responsible for violence, until post-Enlightenment, when view on the Fall where replaced by the Humanitarian principle.
-put ot9hers before yourself, is something Pinker believed in.

Question 35

Interpretating Augustine today: Reinhold Niebuhr and collective moral responsability over sin

Answer 35

-says since the Enlightenment, we have lost moral responsability
-By rejecting the idea of sin, no action can ever be entirely good.
-believes belief in moral goodness and power of reason enough to establish just and fair societies.
-believes human ego needs to understand it’s own nature
-has three paradoxes:
-Original sin is both “inevitable, but not necessary”
-Sin is apparent in evil and good acts
-At an indiivdual levle, good people may do good thingd but when acting as part of a group they do not.