Augustine

Question 1

Who was Augustine influenced by?

Answer 1

• Plotinus = was ashamed to live in a body like his but believed that human intellect was enough to ascertain what’s good. (Rejected him because this would make revealed knowledge in Bible pointless)
• Manichaeism = believed that the universe was in an eternal state of conflict between what’s good and what’s bad (Grew out of these ideas after having a vision that evil is not a substance)

Question 2

What was the world like before the Fall?

Answer 2

• Adam and Eve live in a loving friendship with one another
• World is in a state of perfection which followed God’s plan
• Humanity lives without any need for repressive political authority
• God lives among them
• They have a sexual relationship that’s not governed by lust

Question 3

How does Augustine describe Adam and Eve’s friendship before the Fall?

Answer 3

• Concordia
• A state of easy, understanding friendship with no desire
• Augustine put a lot of importance into friendships because he thought that it was vital for naturally social humans

Question 4

What does massa damnata mean?

Answer 4

• Humanity is the mass of the damned (the result of the Fall)

Question 5

What was the state of humanity after the Fall?

Answer 5

• Adam and Eve are banished from the Garden of Eden
• God gives Eve pain in childbirth and makes Adam toil the fields to get his food
• Both realise suddenly that they’re naked and are ashamed to be in that state in front of God
• Human nature becomes corrupted

Question 6

How did the Fall lead to Inherited Sin?

Answer 6

• Augustine believed we all of humanity was seminally present in the loins of Adam and therefore all of humanity is somewhat culpable for the Original sin
• Sex also became tainted and driven by desire and is therefore sinful, so we are all born out of sin

Question 7

What is cupiditas?

Answer 7

• Selfish lust driven by desire and love of material things.
• The love of changeable, impermanent, earthly things
• Entirely the fault of the individual if followed
• Followed by unhappy, ignorant people

Question 8

What is caritas?

Answer 8

• Latin word for agape
• Selfless, understanding, unconditional love

Question 9

What is concupiscence?

Answer 9

-When bodily desire overpowers reason
-Most obvious case of this being sexual desire
-Sexual organs can be active when the human mind doesn’t want them to be

Question 10

What did Pelagius believe about human nature?

Answer 10

• Says our innate human nature isn’t corrupt, we’re educated in evil, it’s just how we’re raised
• Adam and Eve’s sin wasn’t passed on to all of humanity, it was kept to themselves
• Children are born in the same state as they were before the fall
• Would argue that if Original Sin were true then we wouldn’t be able to avoid doing evil which would make God punishing us for it unjust
• Also says it’s unethical for all of humanity to be punished for the sins of Adam

Question 11

How did Augustine disagree with Pelagius?

Answer 11

• Augustine doesn’t say God actually blames humanity, just says that Original Sin is a purely factual consequence of the Fall
• Says that it wouldn’t make sense for children to be born in the same state as pre-Fall, otherwise what would be the point of Jesus’ sacrifice?