Augustine

What made Augustine desire to pursue wisdom?

In Book III of the Confessions, Augustine recounts that, during his time studying rhetoric at Carthage, he read Cicero's Hortensius and it made him desire to pursue wisdom.

What did the Manicheans believe?

Believed that the world is engaged in a cosmic battle between good and evil.

People have two souls, one good and one evil, and these pull the individual in different directions

Why did Augustine repudiate Manicheanism?

Didn't give satisfactory explanations for the universe on the latest mathematical and astronomical observations - no more than superstition (confirmed by his meeting with the Manichean bishop Faustus - a kind but intellectually weak man)

What did the neo-Platonists believe?

Plotinus seemed ashamed of living in a human body

Caused Augustine to think that evil is not a substance, but something non-existent

Why did Augustine repudiate neo-Platonism?

Doubtful of Plotinus' assertion that the human intellect could understand the nature of goodness on its own.

What problem did Augustine face before his conversion?

Struggled to make sense of his emotions, sense of guilt and lack of inner happiness.

What renewed his interest in Christianity?

In AD386 at age 32, he was in the garden of his friend Alypius - heard the voice of a child saying "take it and read, take it and read" and took it as God's command". He turned to Romans 13:13 and "all darkness of doubt was dispelled"

What is central to the Christian view of human nature?

Whether Christians believe that Adam and Eve were historical people, or whether they believe that the story is a mythical way of explaining the human condition, it is a central belief in Christianity that humanity is inclined to sin.

Does Genesis 3:14-19 provide a prima facie reason for believing in the fall?

Genesis 3:14-19 shows that the enmity between humans and snakes, the difficulties of childbirth, the need to work hard to make a living and the inevitability of death are all accounted for by the Fall.

Does our experience provide a prima facie reason for believing in the fall?

Man has spontaneous erections, wet dreams and loss of rational control during orgasm.

What makes Augustine's account of human nature convincing?

Its sincerity - the personal challenges described by Augustine are as much a part of the human condition as they were today

Augustine talked about the "hissing cauldron of lust" when he studied rhetoric at Carthage

The fact that ideas are unpalatable has little bearing on their truth.

What was life like before the fall?

Time of harmony

What was Adam and Eve's relationship before the Fall?

Adam and Eve lived in a spirit of loving friendship, friends both with each other as partners and with God.

God had commanded them to "be fruitful and multiply" (Genesis 1:28) - they would have enjoyed a sexual relationship, but it would not have been a relationship governed by lust.

Before the Fall, they lived comfortably with their bodies, with no suggestion that there was anything wrong with being naked.

What was the will like before the Fall?

The human will is driven by love, both cupiditas and caritas.

These are both necessary elements of the will - for a man to love his neighbour, he must also love himself.

Cupiditas:

Love of impermanent, mutable earthly things and love of the self

Caritas:

Generous love of others

What does Augustine thinks accounts for evil?

Evil in the world was entirely due to the human misuse of free will and is therefore not the fault of God.

What caused humans to reject their perfect relationship with the world and with God?

Pride - Adam and Eve's decision to eat from the forbidden tree of knowledge in Eden is a sign of their desire to be like God - cupiditas was separated from caritas.

How did the idea of wanting to have God's knowledge enter the minds of Adam and Eve in the first place?

City of God Book XIV - Satan was originally an angel who had through pride fallen from grace and tried to rule the Earth. In Eden he takes on the form of the serpent and sows the seeds of disobedience in Eve's mind.

How is original sin explained?

Original Sin is described as a double death

The first death is the mortal state of every human Genesis 3:19

Second death is caused by Adam's rebellious will and kills the relationship of friendship between humans and God

How does Augustine explain the human race?

"A mass of damnation"

What happened to Adam and Eve as they chose a path of cupiditas?

Adam and Eve chose this path and passed on the tendency to sin to future generations through sexual intercourse

We now have a weakness of will - "akrasia"

Our innate proclivity to sin:

City of God Book XIII - "from the misuse of free will there started a chain of disasters"

Just as a bad tree bears rotten fruit, so Adam's children also bear his rebellious nature (with the exception of Mary who conceived Jesus without lust)

We are "seminally present in the loins of Adam"

Can humans be saved?

People are beyond rescue by their own efforts and can only be saved from sin by God's grace through Christ

If people could achieve goodness through their own efforts, then this made Jesus' sacrifice unnecessary

How does Paul describe struggling between his spiritual inclinations and his physical desires?

"We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin" - Romans 7:14

Talks of the helplessness he feels when he recognises and wants to do the right thing and yet does not seem to be able to do it, falling back into sinful ways through weakness.

Even someone with Paul's strength of faith had difficulties with sin

Augustine's recollection of childhood sin:

Augustine recounts a time when, as a child, he had stolen a pear from someone else's garden - even though he was not hungry and had plenty of good food in his own home, stealing it simply for the pleasure of stealing.

What are post-Lapsarian beings at the mercy of?

Concupiscence (uncontrollable desire for physical pleasure and material things)

How does Augustine describe sin?

Augustine does not describe sin as the inadequacies that all humans are prone to, but that sin is an ontological condition of human existence, not just a description of our behaviour on occasion.

What did Augustine think of earthly society?

He did not think that 'earthly peace' was a great ideal: it was a compromise between sinful human wills.

Augustine believed that, before the Fall, people were capable of living together harmoniously without the need for any kind of repressive political authority.

What is grace?

The generous giving of God's love to people, despite the fact that they can never deserve it.

Described in Confessions Book 8 as "God's generous and quite unmerited attention to humanity"

"Only those who are set free...

through God's grace escape from this calamitous sequences"

What is grace indicative of?

Indicative of God's goodness: everyone is tainted by Original Sin, but God is nevertheless prepared to allow some to go to heaven.

What did Augustine think about reason?

Rejected the idea that human reason can lead people to enlightenment, or that performing acts of kindness and charity could be a way of earning a place in heaven.

What did Pelagius argue?

Humans have sufficient free will to overcome personal sin

Even if Adam had not sinned he would not have died

Adam's sin harmed only himself not the human race

Children are born in the same state as Adam before his Fall

What were the Enlightenment views of human nature?

Jean-Jacques Rosseau and Locke tended towards the view that people are born "tabula rasa" (blank slate) - babies are neither good nor evil, but born with a fresh start ready to make free choices and learn and become whatever they become.

What did Richard Dawkins say against Augustine's conception of original sin?

Original Sin is contrary to evolutionary biology

Absurd to imagine the corruption of all humans rests on two individuals:

Humans emerged from less sophisticated animal forms who did not have the kind of consciousness which enabled them to make an active decision to rebel - a literal belief in Adam and Eve makes no sense.

How would Dawkins respond to a symbolic account of the Fall?

Even a symbolic account of the Fall does not rid Christianity of its unhealthy obsession with sin, guilt, violence and repressed sexuality.

What does Dawkins call sadomasochism?

The belief that "condemns every child before it is born to inherit the is of a remote ancestor" is "sadomasochism"

Can the Fall be read as a symbol of a person's spiritual journey?

Creation, the Fall and redemption are not separate events in world history, but the history of each person's individual life.

The Fall as described in Genesis 3 is an imaginative story about the moment when each of us loses our innocence and has to engage with the harsh realities of life

The Fall is not a one-off historical moment, but a crucial moment when each person rebels against God and acts selfishly for their own ends

Evaluation of Augustine's account when interpreted as a symbol for a person's spiritual journey:

Per this view, the value of Augustine's assessment of the human condition is that he highlights the significance of the spiritual dimension of being human.

What are the strengths of Augustine's account when interpreted as a symbol for a person's spiritual journey?

The end of the narrative concludes as each person achieves a state of wholeness in Christ - each person's life is not merely a biological journey, but a spiritual journey of body and spirit.

It is not an easy journey, as Augustine's evocative examples of human behaviour illustrate, for even the greatest of human achievements are counterbalanced by acts of human horror.

What is the challenge of the humanitarian principle?

Steven Pinker thinks religion has been responsible for violence, suffering and the debasement of humanity until the Enlightenment when the irrational superstitions such as Original Sin were replaced by the humanitarian principle

What is the humanitarian principle?

Humanitarian principle is the recognition that humans get on better when each person takes into account the interests of others and all are rational.

The west has seen a rapid decline of capital punishment, everyday use of torture in the judicial systems, war of religions, abuse of women, tyrants and despotic leaders.

What did Reinhold Niebuhr think?

Failure to understand sin leads to colossal mistakes being made by society and especially by those in power

The rationalism of Western philosophy and politics has failed. The optimistic vision of the post-Enlightenment thinker has not only failed but more worryingly the idea has corrupted the human sense of responsibility. By rationalising and rejecting the traditional notion of sin, humans fail to realise that no action can ever be entirely good and this causes greater injustice and more suffering.

The Terror in post-revolutionary France

What problems with society can be attributed to Augustine's conception of sin?

Augustine's fault that for hundreds of years, Western societies have felt guilt about sex.

Sigmund Freud:

Sigmund Freud thereby offers a challenge to this Augustinian tradition, though not necessarily a negative one.

Freud's challenge:

Whilst Freud's analysis of sexuality rejects Augustine's Original Sin, it does not deny the centrality of the libido in the development of a person's personality.

Whilst he rejects the view that humans fell from grace, he doesn't completely dismiss Augustine's psychological insights.

Shares Augustine's notion that human personality is not chosen by the individual but is the result of history and environment (neuroses have their roots in childhood)

Examples of more optimistic views than Augustine's:

Quaker movement - emphasis on each person carrying the divine light of God and on seeking moral purity in thoughts and actions

Humanists celebrate the achievements and potential of humanity

Existentialists take the view that we have the freedom to create our own natures and our own destines

Augustine's view being pessimistic:

We are completely at the mercy of our sinful desires and our inability to be truthful even to ourselves.

Doctrine of election

Augustine's view is not pessimistic:

Does not just make a diagnosis of the human condition but shows the cure: the saving grace of God through the person of Jesus Christ, even though we do not deserve it.

Realistic

Is there a human nature?

Existentialists think that we do not come into this world with nature - we are free as individuals to decide who we are and what we want to become: a freedom which can be both frightening as well as liberating

Examples of humans having the potential to act in diametrically opposed ways:

Anders Breivik carried out a series of attacks in 2011, killing 77 in his attempt to cleanse Europe of 'non-European' elements.

Maximillian Kolbe offered himself in exchange for a man who had been condemned to death by starvation as a deterrent to escaping the Auschwitz concentration camp.

Rosseau:

"Man is born free and everywhere he is in chains" (metaphor of chains shows how the human competition for land, resources and power has resulted in a loss of freedom).

Hobbes:

the life of man is "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short"

Keith Ward in A Vision to Pursue:

Agrees that it is a myth, but this explains the struggle of the survival of the fittest - humans have developed a natural tendency to be selfish in order to survive.

The poverty of empirical research:

The paper "Empathic concern drives altruism" (Feldman-Hall et al, 2015) shows people are likely to help those who they believe are in need, showing that we have an inherent "empathetic concern" which stimulates "prosocial behaviour".

BUT... Stanford prison experiment

Cheeky essay start:

The Russo-Ukrainian war wages on in eastern Europe, the Taliban continue to inflict terror in Afghanistan, guerrilla warfare bedevils Burkina Faso, a war of attrition engulfs much of the Middle East, and gun violence continues to plague America. But why?