St Augustine Flashcards
What was St Augustine a professor of?
rhetoric at the imperial court of milan
What was St Augustine concerned about when he turned to the church?
he had to give up his sexual relations
Spent his life looking for god…
….to realise he was always there
What historic event did Rome believe had been caused by abandonment of the Gods and what did St Augustine say about this?
Sack of rome, thought the romans were wrong.
What is wrong with all of humanity according to St Augustine?
We have been deformed by sin, we are naturally imperfect.
What is the divison that matters in humanity?
-between the saved and the damned
Why does reason go wrong?
-It thinks it is the path to perfection
-the claim we have the human capacity to be pefect is a manifestation of sin.
Are human beings perfectable?
-no
-the value of politics is that it can secure saints and sinners an earthly peace as they live together.
Everything that exists has been…
…created from nothing.
what do all created things carry the weight of?
-corruptability
-a tendency to track back towards the nothingness which they came
Adam was able to….
….do all he desired and desired to do nothing he couldn’t
How did evil enter the garden of eden?
-the original sin of pride
-adam knew when he ate from the tree he was turning away from the supreme good but wanted to be in his own power.
What did St Augustine suggest about Adam and his loins?
-we are all in adam and we inherit the sin and punishment of sin.
What does Augustine think about self control/ posession
-it is another manifestation of wanting to be in control and domination
and these three remain….
…faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
What does St Augustine say about hope?
-a holy longing
-a willingness to wait
What does St Augustine say about love?
-a righteous will is good love, we are motivated by love.
-we should reorient our love to something higher rather than lower.
What does Simon Weil say about faith?
-waiting on god
-faith is not a belief but a matter of being willing to wait.
What are the two cities?
-created by two types of love
-the earthly city
-the godly city
What is the earthly city?
-self-love reaching a point of contempt of god
What is the heavenly city?
-by love as god carried as far as contempt to self.
-love god so much you fogret about yourself,
What fancy word can the two cities be described as?
-eschatological
-two cities into which mankind will be gathered at the end of time
What can the earthly city be described of in terms of God?
an eternity estranged from god.
What are the signs of the earthly cities?
- Pride
- Cupidity
- Self-division
