A- Religious concepts of predestination Flashcards
Augustine, Calvin
Key scholars
St Augustine (354-430AD)
John Calvin (1509- 1564)
Religious predestination
- the theory that all events are determined by the will of God- particularly, the final destiny of moral agents
Outline: If God is omniscient, and has foreknowledge of everything you will or won’t do does that mean you could not have done otherwise than you did?
Maybe God simply ‘sees’ everything all at once- not determined, just known.
Relevance of eternal life
- must be given by God. Humans cannot merit salvation.
- therefore God pre-determines those to whom the gift will be given, or who can ‘merit’ the gift.
- this reasoning implies that humans are either chosen or predetermined for salvation, or rejected, and predetermined for damnation.
- cannot help faithlessness or sins because you have not been chosen.
St Augustine context
(354-430AD)
Powerful theologian in the hierarchy of early Catholic Church.
Wrote the ‘Doctrine of original Sin’ which at the time became the Catholic Church’s official theology on predestination.
Influenced by Pelagius’ work, where he preached that humans have the freedom to turn to God by themselves. Augustine formed a response to this challenge to God’s omnipotence.
Augustine’s work
- Focused on problem of human freedom and moral evil.
- ‘The Confessions’ -> deep reflection on sins he committed until he could convert his manner of life and become Christian (motives, God’s patience and grace encouraging)
- Theology is interplay of God’s eternal, unchanging love and presence meeting human waywardness, through grace.
Confessions
“Great art thou, O Lord.. Thou hast created us for Thyself, and our heart is not quiet until it rests in Thee”
What did Augustine see as unacceptable?
- unacceptable to deny the dignity of humans, as images of God, to make real, free choices
- unacceptable to deny that God is omnipotent. How human life works out- whether it merits salvation- is His gift
- Augustine rejects God as totally in control or humans as perfectly free, and seeks the ‘middle’
‘Doctrine of original sin’
- starting point is the original sin of Adam and Eve, their sin of eating from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, despite explicit instructions from God not to do so.
- Adam and Eve were created perfect, but committed the first sin.
Why humanity is predestined- Liberum arbitrium
- argues humanity is born with free will- this is our original essential Godly nature (made in the image of God). Therefore our essential human nature is ‘liberum arbitrium’
- Latin phrase meaning that a person has the power of making choices that are free from predestination.
- originally introduced into Christianity by an earlier Christian thinker, Tertullian- not a biblical idea.
What is concupiscence?
Latin term meaning ‘longing’ and is associated with human senses eg. a longing for earthly material things such as for food, sex etc.
In opposition to having the desire to know and love God, concupiscence in itself is not a sin but it inhibits a moral agent’s ability to choose Godly goodness and resist the temptation of earthly pleasures.
Concupiscence of the flesh
- our minds and desires have been corrupted by original sin.
- concupiscence acts as secondary human nature which overrides our essential human nature.
- Augustine argues humanity’s free will ‘has been utterly wasted by sin’ (incapable of goodness)
- original sin changed man’s desires, so we are more inclined to pursue and satisfy lower, sensual pleasures, than on pursuing truth, goodness, God- concupiscence.
- humanity cannot resist choosing earthly pleasure over Godly pursuits (dominant concupiscence pre determines all human ‘choices’)
- Augustine’s idea of free will shaped by St Paul, who said that this free will of humans is limited by sin, because of the sin of Adam.
Wound of original sin + inclination to sin
- free will has been weakened, or wounded, by sin but not eliminated.
- before sin, man was able to choose freely.
- now, our free will is like a pair of scales loaded towards the side of evil, we are biased towards evil decisions.
- Only God’s grace can restore our free will to it’s original freedom.
Impact of original sin- quote
“I keep on doing the evil I do not want to do… thus it is no longer I who do it, but it is the sin living in me that does it”
Inescapability of concupiscence:
- for Augustine, no one can escape this condition. Adam’s sin was so serious that it definitively corrupted human nature, and this was inherited by all subsequent humans.
Because…
- descended from Adam, we share in his corrupted nature. “All humans were seminally present in the loins of Adam”
- Adam’s fall away from God towards material temptations brought concupiscence into his nature- even into activity of sex. Sex became lustful which meant that all humans are created in concupiscence. (resulting in massa peccati)
Massa peccati
All humanity is born ‘massa peccati’ - a ‘lump of sin’, collectively and individually (Latin term)
This is because Adam’s sin/ corruption was inherited by all subsequent humans.
“All humans were seminally present in the loins of Adam”
Adam’s fall away from God towards material temptations brought concupiscence into his nature- even into activity of sex. Sex became lustful which meant that all humans are created in concupiscence- forming this ‘lump of sin’
