Augustine Flashcards
The Fall
Adam and Eve chose to disobey God by eating the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil
Original Sin
Human nature is corrupt an everyone has a tendency to sin: it in inherited - all seminally present in Adam
Pre Lapsarian
Before the fall
Cupiditas
Self - love (love of impermanent things of selfishness and lust)
Caritas
Generous love
Sin
Disobeying the will and commands of God
Will
Part of human nature, determines choices
Akrasia
Weakness of will
Summum Bonum
Highest Good
Humanitarian Principle
Taking other people’s interests into account without needing Gods grace
Pre -destination
God chooses and guides some people in to salvation
Grace
Gods free and undeserved love for humanity, shows by the sacrifice of Jesus dying on the cross
Concupscience
Sexual lust/uncontrolled desires; the nature of humankind is prone to sin
Concordia
Easy comfortable relationship of friends
Rousseau’s quote about being Born Good
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)
Hobbes quote about being born evil
The life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short
Humans still have free will to choose between good and evil but it’s like faulty scales which are weighted…
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.
Augustine’s teaching is pessimistic
humans cannot help themselves or resist their corrupt nature.
The Fall goes against evolutionary biology which suggests that humanity is improving and working towards perfection.
humans evolved from lower animal forms which did not have the kind of consciousness to make a decision to rebel.
If the damage is already done, why bother trying to be good?
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Pelagius argued that human nature is not flawed. Sin must be freely chosen rather than inherited.
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.
Niebuhr also suggested that no action can ever be entirely good: the inner will is defeated by egoism and self-interest.
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
