Augustine and Human Nature

Question 1

How was humanity before the fall according to Augustine?

Answer 1

Adam and Eve had a harmonious relationship with nature and each other.

Question 2

How was our ability to be rational before the fall?

Answer 2

Augustine thought our rationality must have had perfect control over our bodies before it became corrupted by original sin, before then, sex would have been a purely rational act, not driven by desire.

Question 3

Augustine and Humans now

Answer 3

“All humans were seminally present in the loins of Adam”,future generations of people are in the “loins of the father”.

Question 4

What is the result of original sin?

Answer 4

Humanity is massa damnata (the mass of the damned)

Question 5

Concupiscence

Answer 5

It is when bodily desire overpowers reason, Augustine thought the most obvious case was sexual desire.

Question 6

Augustine’s opposition to Pelagius a an

Answer 6

Augustine opposed Pelagius, stating that human nature after the fall is entirely corrupt.

Question 7

How can we alleviate sin?

Answer 7

The only way to alleviate sin is through Gods grace, because we are incapable of choosing to do good or follow God alone.

Question 8

Who is able to see Gods grace?

Answer 8

Only the elect receive this grace, this is strongly reminiscent of Manichaeism which he rejected so many years before.

Question 9

Augustine’s thoughts of the divided will

Answer 9

Augustine argues the soul/will is divided.
The damage done in the fall means that the will is not strong enough to overcome desires.

Question 10

What word refers to the weakness of will

Answer 10

Akrasia

Question 11

What did St Paul say on desires?

Answer 11

‘For I do not what i want, but I do the very thing I hate’

Question 12

Concupiscence

Answer 12

This is the tendency to sin or sway toward desires.
In the fallen state man cannot control his libido, the desiring part of the soul is dominated by concupiscence.

Question 13

Original Sin

Answer 13

In the post-lapsarian world the effects of Adam’s sin can be seen in the rebellion of the will.

Question 14

what is a flaw of Augustine’s ‘the fall’

Answer 14

many modern christians scholars argue that augustine’s idea of the fall does not leave enough room for human moral and spiritual development.

Question 15

What is a different interpretation of the fall?

Answer 15

the fall in genesis 3 may be an imaginative story about the moment we lose our innocence and engage with the realities of life. the fall here is not a one off but a phase, when each person rebels against god and acts selfishly.

Question 16

What is Richard Dawkins opinion of Augustine?

Answer 16

richard dawkins find the whole notion of the fall and original sin to be both contrary to evolutionary biology as well as absurd and dangerous. he blames much human suffering on the idea of original sin created by augustine.

Question 17

What was Richard Dawkins First argument against the Fall?

Answer 17

it is absurd to imagine the corruption of billions rests on two people. evolutionary biology considers that humans emerged from less sophisticated animals without consciousness to make the decision to rebel, so any literal belief in adam and eve is absurd too.

Question 18

What is Richard Dawkins second argument?

Answer 18

even a symbolic account of the fall does not excuse an obsession with guilt, sin, violence and repressed sexuality

Question 19

What is Richard Dawkins third argument?

Answer 19

the idea that god should wish to restore human nature by killing jesus on the cross is sadomasochistic and irrational

Question 20

What is Steven Pinkers argument against Augustine?

Answer 20

religion in general, but especially christianity, has been responsible for violence, suffering and debasement of humanity.

Question 21

What is Niebuhr argument against Augustine?

Answer 21

although the post-enlightenment thinks like hume, kant and mill made it unfashionable to talk about sin, failure to understand it leads to colossal mistakes being made by society. His argument is that the rationalism of the West has failed. The optimistic vision of these thinkers has failed, but also corrupted the human sense of responsibility.

Question 22

How does Neibuhr differentiate from Augustine?

Answer 22

he does not think there is nothing to be done about our state, the solution for him is for the human ego to understand itself by a relationship with god. Only then will it realise its limitations and possibilities.

Question 23

What does the Church control?

Answer 23

the church has seen its role as controlling sex through marriage and teaching people to repress and banish sexual impulses

Question 24

How has Freud influenced society?

Answer 24

freud’s influence means that christians now think that sex is more than just procreative and that pleasure is not a sin or loss of control, nor that sex passes universal guilt.