Saint Augustine's teachings Flashcards
insight
Emperor Constantine
-Christianity hasn’t always been popular
-under emperors of Rome being a Christian was punishable by death, considered treason
-all changed under the rule of Constantine
-adopted Christianity in AD 312, giving it a different status in the Roman empire
-gained positions of power and wealth
-Constantine, however, didn’t insist on people become Christians, instead he promoted religious tolerance
Augustine (AD 354-430)
-Born in North Africa
-grew up in an environment of religious and philosophical pluralism that Constantine established
-Augustine’s mother was a devout Christian (shaping a lot of Augustine’s belief)
-from a poor background, Augustine showed promise at an early age, parents sent him to school
-loved rhetoric
-talents became noticed and taught in Carthage, Rome and Milan
influences on Augustine’s ideas: Manichees
-followed by Augustine as a young man
-believed:
-the world was in a cosmic battle of good and evil
-people had two different souls: one good and one evil (internal struggle)
-soul is part of the Kingdom of light but trapped in the kingdom of darkness because of appetites in the body (synoptic link: Plato)
-looked to role models, especially Jesus for guidance
Influences on Augustine’s ideas: Plotinus (Neoplatonist)
-there is only the Form of the Good
-negative about body
-people should treat their own characters like a sculptor with a statue, carefully reviewing all angles and chiselling away at parts which aren’t quite right
-Augustine realised that evil isn’t a substance but a turning away from goodness = Manichees wrong
continuing
-Augustine was still not completely happy
-he questioned if Plotinus was correct and human intellect could understand the nature of goodness, then there would be no need for Jesus and his guidance
-went to hear the preaching’s of the Bishop of Milan, St Ambrose, influenced Augustine to renew his interest in Christianity
-combination of St Ambrose and St Paul’s letter to the Romans that Augustine came to the conclusion that:
1.human cannot find truth through reason alone
2.need the Grace of God
3.need to turn away from bodily pleasures in order to concentrate on spiritual life
Augustine’s change
-Augustine became a priest then a bishop
-converted back to Christianity, however, had a mistress whom he lived with and a child
-once converted his mother told him to give up his mistress and marry someone else
-such sexual freedom were a barrier to spirituality and others therefore should be restricted from them
-Augustine ordered the destruction of non-Christian places of worship
-persecuted heretics
Human nature and will before the Fall
-lived in a spirit of loving friendship (concordia) and in harmony with living creatures
-God made Adam/Eve exactly as he wanted
-made with freewill, chief characteristics of being in imego dei (image of God)
-God commanded them to ‘be fruitful and multiply’ = enjoy sexual relations
-happy nudists
-‘state of perfection’
Human nature and will after the Fall
-broke covenant/promise
-existence of evil cannot be from God
-evil is here entirely because of the misuse of human free will
-we are all tainted with sin through Adam and Eve therefore attracted to material goods
-Adam and Eve’s bloodline, therefore, inherited this taintedness
-unlike the Manichees’ idea of good and evil there is only one power - God
-there is nothing we can do to be free from God, need salvation through God’s grace
Love
-Augustine saw human will as being driven by love, which (after the Fall) could pull a person in right or wrong direction
-our fallen human nature inevitably leads people to do wrong
-two types of love: cupiditas and caritas
cupiditas
-love after the Fall
-love of impermanent, changeable earthy things
-love of self and selfish needs
-people who choose this are ignorant and often unhappy because they have subjected themselves to laws of the world which are the human laws of social life
caritas
-love before the Fall
-Latin of the Greek word Agape (synoptic link: situation ethics)
-generous love of others
-expression of God wills of eternal law (synoptic link: Aquinas)
-dispatched through virtues (prudence, fortitude, temperance and justice)
-leads to spiritual happiness
original sin
-humanity’s sinful nature after the Fall =
-Adam and Eve chose the path -of cupiditas and future generations have all inherited Original Sin, meaning that all humans are sinful by nature and are born that way because they have inherited it from Adam
-we are all in a state of ignorance, an inevitable consequence of chasing cupiditas
-people are beyond rescue by their own efforts
-can only be saved from sin by God’s grace through Christ
-if people could achieve goodness through own efforts then Jesus’ sacrifice is unnecessary
-he saw the human will as being divided: people still have the God given ability to reason and to recognise right from wrong, but this is corrupted, always inclined to do wrong (synoptic link= Aquinas would disagree, synderesis)
Augustine and the Pear
-as a child Augustine stole a pear from someone else’s garden, even though he wasn’t hungry and had plenty of good food in his own home, he stole it due to the pleasure of stealing - ‘confessions’ = book
-demonstrates that sin had become part of human nature, something displayed in even children (born this way)
Augustine on Men, Women and Sexuality
-Augustine argued that humaity is sinful, at the mercy of ‘concupiscence’ = sexual desire, lusts for material things which are distraction from loving and obeying God
-he encouraged married couples withe enough children to take a vow of celibacy
-Augustine never lived to extremes, enjoying good meals and conversations but never indulgent, also remaining pure of will - not allowing women to visit his house
-women = Augustine didn’t see women as weaker or evil because of the sin of Eve = all created in God’s image
-believed women, do take passive roles in the house
-one must follow political authority and keep focused on the destination: City of God
-this heavenly society or ‘ecclesia’ is the perfect way to live, achieved in the afterlife through the grace of God
Augustine’s teachings about Grace
-only way for humanity and God to live harmoniously again is through God’s grace
-God’s grace = the generous giving of God’s love
-God’s grace is the only thing that can save people from eternal punishment for their sinful nature
-rejects that human reason or acts of kindness earn a place in heaven but elected by God
-instead the grace of God is found through Jesus
-Summon Bonum is an aspect of God seen through such things as evil being a lack of goodness, distancing us way from the supreme goodness of God
