Augustine

Augustine on Erotic Lust and Disobedience

Introduction to Augustine

  • Augustine (354-430 AD) was a prominent theologian and advocate for Christianity.

  • Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire half a century before Augustine's time, under Constantine.

  • Early life was devoted to eros and worldly pleasures in Rome.

  • Conversion to Christianity in 386 AD led to a critical view of erotic love, influenced by Christian condemnation of the flesh.

Origin of Lust

  • Augustine traces erotic lust to the Fall, the disobedience of Adam and Eve.

  • Procreation was part of God's plan, but lust is a consequence of disobedience.

  • In Paradise, procreation would have been by will, without shameful desires.

  • Augustine views true love as spiritual love of God, with eros as an impediment.

  • His teachings have significantly influenced the history of love, spiritualization, and attitudes toward sex and love.

Disobedience/Lack of Control and Its Relationship to Lust

  • Humans disobeyed God, who created them, made them in His image, placed them above animals, and provided abundantly in Paradise.

  • The command was simple, meant to remind humans that God is Lord.

  • Condemnation followed: humans became carnal in mind, losing their spiritual nature, even in flesh.

  • Pride led to being granted to themselves but without full power, leading to internal conflict and slavery.

  • Humans became willingly dead in spirit and destined to die in body, facing eternal death unless freed by grace.

  • Augustine emphasizes the magnitude of sin, given the ample opportunity not to sin.

  • Even those enamored by pleasure do not always experience arousal at will.

  • Lust can intrude uninvited or desert a panting lover; desire may be ablaze in the mind, but the body is frigid.

  • Lust opposes both the will to procreate and the lust for wantonness and can be divided against itself, arousing the mind but failing to arouse the body.

Gendered & Sexist Dimensions of the Story of Adam & Eve

  • Traditional interpretations often place blame on Eve for the Fall, portraying her as more susceptible to temptation than Adam.

  • This interpretation has been used to justify patriarchal structures and the subordination of women throughout history.

  • Some feminist theologians argue that the story reflects and reinforces existing power imbalances rather than presenting an objective account of human origins.

  • The narrative can be seen as contributing to the construction of gender roles, with women associated with irrationality and men with reason.

  • The idea that women are inherently more sinful or easily led astray has had profound and lasting effects on social attitudes and legal systems.

Fleshly Desire and Pain

  • Feeling desire or pain in the flesh involves the individual or a part of the soul affected by the flesh's experiences.

  • Pain of the flesh is a vexation of the soul arising from the flesh or disagreement with actions done to the flesh.

  • Grief is preceded by fear, which is in the soul, not the flesh.

  • Pleasure is preceded by craving felt in the flesh, such as hunger, thirst, or lust (especially affecting the sex organs).

Lust and Shame

  • Lust, when mentioned without specifying an object, usually refers to sexual lust exciting shameful parts of the body.

  • It affects the entire body internally and externally, convulsing a person when mixed with mental emotion, creating unmatched physical pleasure.

  • This climax leads to a near-total eclipse of acumen and alertness.

  • Those in wedlock who follow the Apostle's admonition to possess their bodies in holiness and honor would prefer to beget children without such lust.

  • The ideal is for the mind to control procreation, as it controls other bodily functions, activated by will, not lust.

Freud

Importance of the Unconscious

  • (Expand on Freud's concept of the unconscious and its influence on desires and behaviors.)

Oedipus Complex/Oedipal Feelings

  • (Discuss the Oedipus complex and its consequences for men's adult romantic relationships.)

Freud’s Explanation of Men's Romantic Relationship Problems

  • (Detail Freud's explanation of developmental factors that lead to problems in men's romantic relationships.)