Lesson 5 - Augustine

Question 1

Who is considered the greatest influence on Western Christian thought?

Answer 1

Augustine (354-430)

Question 2

Who were Augustine’s Theological Apologetics (who was he in opposition against)?

Answer 2

1. ) Against Manichaeism
   - - Rejection of dualism and fatalism
2. ) Against Donatism
   - - ecclesiastical purists
3. ) Against Arianism
   - - balanced expositions on the Trinity
4. ) Against Pelagianism
   - - Give what you command, and command what you will.
   - - Pelagian: responsibility must imply ability
   - - Liberty of spontaneity (desires) vs. liberty of indifference

Question 3

What are Augustine’s 4 states of man?

Answer 3

1. ) Created man - able to sin and not sin
2. ) Fallen man - not able to not sin
3. ) Redeemed man - able to not sin
4. ) Glorified man - not able to sin

Question 4

What is Augustine’s metaphysics?

Answer 4

1. ) Biblical view of God over the dualism of Manichaeism
2. ) Biblical view of Creation over against Platonism (Demiurge - finite craftsment) and NeoPlatonism (great chain of being)
3. ) Biblical view of anthropology over against Platonism and Aristotlelianism
   - - humans are both body (material) and soul (immaterial)

Question 5

What is Augustine’s epistemology?

Answer 5

Refutation of skepticism, and importance of faith

– Faith is a necessary precondition to understanding

Question 6

What is Augstine’s 3 levels of reality?

Answer 6

1. ) God
2. ) Soul
3. ) Body

Question 7

What is Augustine’s 3 levels of knowledge?

Answer 7

1. ) Intellection - knowledge of eternal truths
2. ) Cogitation - judgements about physical objects based on the forms
3. ) Sensation - direct awareness of physical objects

Question 8

How do you gain knowledge?

Answer 8

1. ) knowledge via sense-experience

2. ) knowledge of the forms through divine experience

Question 9

What is Augustine’s ethics?

Answer 9

• • Ethics are grounded in the character of God

- - The highest good is God

Question 10

What is Augustine’s ethics centered on?

Answer 10

Love

• • Satisfaction comes from loving the right things with the right reason (rightly ordered loves)
• • Disordered loves –> Disordered person –> Disordered communities

Question 11

Where did Augustine write his philosophy of history?

Answer 11

City of God (413-426)

Question 12

What are the 2 tensions in Augustine’s history?

Answer 12

City of God: those who love God (focused on heaven)

City of Man: those who love themselves and the world

Question 13

What is Augustine’s big idea?

Answer 13

God is the absolutely sovereign Creator, and we are utterly dependent on God for existence, knowledge, goodness, and salvation.