Augustine on human nature

Question 1

Genesis 2-3

Answer 1

Genesis 2-3 humans before the fall lived in the imagio dei in a harmonious relationship with God. God-given free will comes with the ability to either act in selfish love (cupidas) or selfless love (cartias) Two loves are harmonious with one another and enables humans to live in a perfect friendship with God.

Question 2

The Divided will

Answer 2

However human hubris to be like God demonstrates how humans used their free will to turn away from God and towards evil. Augustine argues that because the will has been used for evil it causes the will to become divided and Cartias and Cupidas are no longer in harmony

Question 3

FOR - Paul

Answer 3

Paul Romans 7 where he describes how the desire to do good is overcome by the desire to do evil

Question 4

FOR - Evidence in society

Hobbes

Answer 4

Implications of the divided will (Augustine) – evil desires become intrinsic to human nature. Evidenced within society as humans are observed to be greedy and lustful, there wouldn’t be such a need for extensive legalistic structures if people could live harmoniously. Hobbes “Humans are selfish”

Question 5

FOR - God Sovereignty

Answer 5

Doesn’t undermine God sovereignty as it was Adam and Eve’s own free will that they chose to sin and turn away

Question 6

AGAINST - Bible stories

Answer 6

Biblical stories such as the Good Samaritan useless as humans would not have the capability of morality and learning if all corrupted by sin. This would suggest that God is ignorant to sin and thus would be contradictory to a perfect God’s nature.

Question 7

AGAINST - no point to morality

Answer 7

If all are incapable of ever choosing the good then there would be no point to morality as humans could never do good. Negates the point of free will as we are trapped always choosing our evil desires

Question 8

AGAINST - Create the garden in the first place

Answer 8

Why would God place the tree in the Garden in the first place? Why would God create humans to have the potential to do evil it’s as if he wanted them to fall

Question 9

KEY TERM - God’s grace

Answer 9

Divided will can be restored through God’s grace. As Christ’s sacrifice on the cross meant that he took the consequences of sin into his own body. However, whilst some are saved from sin it is only those that God has predestined (chosen by God-elect) that can be restored whilst the rest are left to suffer in sin

Question 10

FOR - Optimistic

Answer 10

to say this is pessimistic is to undermine God’s sovereignty and his ability to decide. Indeed, even though not everyone will be saved from sin, it is through God’s omnibenevolence that a few humans do, which is arguably optimistic as we are not all eternally left to suffer

Question 11

AGAINST - pelagius

Answer 11

Pelagius – Augustine and this view to pessimistic as the fall did not destroy human potential to good but humans have the requirement to be good.

Question 12

FOR - Pelagius misleads

Answer 12

Weak and potentially misleading criticism as lessens the significance of Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross as he would no longer be dying with the intention to allow some people to be saved from sin and their will to be restored

Question 13

FOR - Pelagius ignores

Answer 13

Pelagius also ignores the vast amount of sin that can be empirically observed within society. Augustine could argue with his own experience, written in his book Confessions, of when he stole for the pleasure of sinning

Question 14

FOR - Pelagius dictatorial

Answer 14

the emphasis on a human to have a requirement to be good could lead to dictatorial systems that emphasise what they perceive is best for morality, which takes the emphasis away from God.

Question 15

KEY TERM - The Humanitarian principle

Answer 15

Pinker argues that humans become good simply by prioritizing the interests of others

Question 16

FOR PINKER - Respect

Answer 16

Advocates for the respect of others and doesn’t require God’s grace which some may see as tyrannical and pessimistic
-Since establishment rapid decline of capital punishment in the west

Question 17

FOR PINKER - Suffering

Answer 17

Religion and Christianity has resulted in suffering and war with irrational superstitions such as OS

Question 18

AGAINST PINKER - NIEBLUR

Answer 18

By rejecting the traditional notion of sin, humans fail at every level to realise that any action can be good which results in more injustices and suffering
-More recognisable at a collective level when people in societal institutions fail to recognise there faults, which leads to more suffering such as the accounts of sexual abuse in Catholic Church

Question 19

KEY TERM - OS

Answer 19

All humans are born in a state of sin with an inclination to turn away from God as the will is dominated by Concupisence (sexual lust or uncontrollable desires) and the desire to do evil

Original sin is transmitted through sexual intercourse “For we are all seminally present in the loins of Adam”

Question 20

AGAINST - No empirical

Answer 20

No empirical evidence of the fall

Question 21

AGAINST - Dawkins quote

Answer 21

Dawkins “What kind of ethical philosophy condemns every child before it’s born to inherit the sin of some remote ancestor” – pessimistic and irrational

Question 22

AGAINST - Evolutionary biology

Answer 22

Absurd to imagine the corruption of all humanity rests on two individuals especially when one considers evolutionary biology and that humans emerged from less sophisticated animal forms without consciousness to rebel

Question 23

FOR - Symbolic

Answer 23

Fall could be understood on a symbolic level rather than being literal conveying a person’s spiritual journey where at the end they reach a state of wholeness with Christ
-Account of the fall shows this spiritual journey wont be as Augustine’s example of human behaviour illustrated that even the greatest human achievements are counterbalanced by acts of horror

Question 24

AGAINST - Symbolic

Answer 24

Even a symbolic account of the fall does not rid Christianity of its unhealthy obsession with guilt violence and repressed sexuality