Augustine

Question 1

The Fall

Answer 1

Adam and Eve chose to disobey God by eating the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil

Question 2

Original Sin

Answer 2

Human nature is corrupt an everyone has a tendency to sin: it in inherited - all seminally present in Adam

Question 3

Pre Lapsarian

Answer 3

Before the fall

Question 4

Cupiditas

Answer 4

Self - love (love of impermanent things of selfishness and lust)

Question 5

Caritas

Answer 5

Generous love

Question 6

Sin

Answer 6

Disobeying the will and commands of God

Question 7

Will

Answer 7

Part of human nature, determines choices

Question 8

Akrasia

Answer 8

Weakness of will

Question 9

Summum Bonum

Answer 9

Highest Good

Question 10

Humanitarian Principle

Answer 10

Taking other people’s interests into account without needing Gods grace

Question 11

Pre -destination

Answer 11

God chooses and guides some people in to salvation

Question 12

Grace

Answer 12

Gods free and undeserved love for humanity, shows by the sacrifice of Jesus dying on the cross

Question 13

Concupscience

Answer 13

Sexual lust/uncontrolled desires; the nature of humankind is prone to sin

Question 14

Concordia

Answer 14

Easy comfortable relationship of friends

Question 15

Rousseau’s quote about being Born Good

Answer 15

Man is born free (as a baby, we are born with all freedom possible) everywhere he is in chains (but as he grows he becomes increasingly tied down in society, a rigid one)

Question 16

Hobbes quote about being born evil

Answer 16

The life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short

Question 17

Humans still have free will to choose between good and evil but it’s like faulty scales which are weighted…

Answer 17

there is always a greater tendency to choose evil – a bias towards evil / sin. The human will is weakened by sin. No-one is born good or can be truly good.

Question 18

Augustine’s teaching is pessimistic

Answer 18

humans cannot help themselves or resist their corrupt nature.

Question 19

The Fall goes against evolutionary biology which suggests that humanity is improving and working towards perfection.

Answer 19

humans evolved from lower animal forms which did not have the kind of consciousness to make a decision to rebel.

Question 20

If the damage is already done, why bother trying to be good?

Answer 20

——

Question 21

Pelagius argued that human nature is not flawed. Sin must be freely chosen rather than inherited.

Answer 21

Humans are only responsible for their own sin and are not tainted with sin from Adam and Eve. Humans do not have to sin. It must be theoretically possible for people to be good.

Question 22

Niebuhr also suggested that no action can ever be entirely good: the inner will is defeated by egoism and self-interest.

Answer 22

power of reason and belief in moral goodness will not bring about a fair and just society. Human ego must encounter the divine - only then will it realise its limitations and possibilities