Theology - Augustine (Human Nature)

Question 1

SPECIFICATION QUESTION:
For the Augustine topic, what are the THREE main areas you are expected to be able to discuss?

Answer 1

1. Human relationships pre- and post-Fall
2. Original Sin and its effects on the will and human societies.
3. God’s Grace

Question 2

In what two centuries did Augustine live?

Answer 2

4th-5th century (AD 354-430).

Question 3

When did St Augustine convert to Christianity?

Answer 3

In his early 30s after a religious experience (he heard the voice of a child telling him to ‘take up and read’ the Bible).

Before this, he lived a promiscuous, non-Christian life and had a child out of wedlock.

Question 4

What were St Augustine’s two main influences BEFORE converting to Christianity?

Answer 4

1. MANICHEISM - Christian dualist sect that believed that the world had two powers in it, good (God) and evil. The evil power was the cause of suffering.
2. NEOPLATONISM - Augustine’s view of the soul and its relationship to the body is strongly Platonic.

Question 5

What does the term ‘doctrine’ mean?

Answer 5

Belief or teaching.

Question 6

What was Augustine’s view of women?

Answer 6

He had many female friends and did not see women as less equal than men, but simply as less dominant, which is why he believed women should be ruled by men in the home (echoing the punishment of Eve at the Fall).

Question 7

True or false: Genesis 1 and 2 describe God’s creation of a perfect world.

Answer 7

True!

Discussion point: how could this have been the case if Adam and Eve turned to sin?

Question 8

Which chapter of the book of Genesis contains the Fall?

Answer 8

Genesis 3.

Question 9

Which chapter of the book of Genesis contains a detailed retelling of the creation of Adam and Eve?

Answer 9

Genesis 2.

Question 10

What does the term ‘Pre-Lapsarian’ refer to?

Answer 10

Pre-Fall.

Question 11

What does the term ‘Post-Lapsarian’ refer to?

Answer 11

Post-Fall.

Question 12

Define the Latin term ‘Concordia’

Answer 12

a state of friendship unaffected by lust and desire.

Friendship expresses the ideal Christian lifestyle. The ideal of friendship is one that it generous and forgiving: Adam and Eve’s relationship was a model of Jesus’ relationship with his disciples.

Question 13

Define the Latin term ‘Caritas’

Answer 13

Selfless love.

Question 14

Define the Latin term ‘Cupiditas’

Answer 14

Self-love.

Question 15

Define the Latin term ‘Akrasia’

Answer 15

the divided will.

Question 16

Define the Latin term ‘Concupiscence’

Answer 16

Humanity’s inclination to sin and to be influenced by lust, desires and selfishness.

Question 17

What was Adam and Eve’s relationship like before the Fall?

Answer 17

FRIENDSHIP (Concordia). The two were married as friends and they enjoyed a friendship with God as well as all of creation.

They could reproduce but sex was not driven by lust, but by friendship.

The human will was a balance between the powers of self-love (cupiditas) and selfless love (caritas). The two existed in a state of HARMONY.

Question 18

Who assures Eve that she will not die if she eats from the tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil?

Answer 18

The serpent.

Question 19

Who eats the fruit from the tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil first?

Answer 19

Eve. She then gives some to Adam.

Question 20

What punishment is the serpent given by God?

Answer 20

Condemned to…

1. CRAWL on the ground.
2. Be the ENEMY of people.

Question 21

How does God punish the woman (Eve)?

Answer 21

She will no longer have immortal life.

Painful childbirth.

Ruled over by her husband.

Will desire her husband.

Question 22

How does God punish the man (Adam)?

Answer 22

He will no longer have immortal life.

He will have to work hard to produce crops all his life.

Question 23

Where did Augustine come from?

Answer 23

North Africa (which at the time was part of the Roman Empire, hence his criticisms of Roman society)

Question 24

In which chapter of Genesis does the Fall account appear?

Answer 24

Genesis 3.

Question 25

What is no longer in harmony after the Fall?

Answer 25

the human will - it is divided between cupiditas (self-love) and caritas (selfless love).

Akrasia refers to the divided will.

Question 26

What does God leave to guard the garden of Eden to prevent humans from accessing the Tree of Life?

Answer 26

Angels and ‘a flaming sword that flashed back and forth.’

Question 27

What term is used to refer to the first sin of Adam and Eve that is passed on to humans through reproduction?

Answer 27

Original Sin.

Question 28

What phrase means the ‘highest good’?

Answer 28

Summum bonum.

Extra info: For Augustine, the idea of the highest good or summum bonum is available for those whom God has chosen. There is a similarity between Augustine’s view of the summum bonum and Plato’s Form of the Good, because in Plato’s thought it is ultimate goodness that cannot be found perfectly in this world.

Question 29

What does the term ‘human nature’ mean?

Answer 29

The ESSENTIAL sense of what all humans are like; shared characteristics.

The specification asks if there is a DISTINCTIVE human nature - this means a NOTICEABLE shared characteristic.

Question 30

Who debated with Augustine about grace, free will and human nature?

Answer 30

Pelagius.

Question 31

What is a ‘Sin’?

Answer 31

Turning away from the will of God.
Deliberate wrongdoing.

Question 32

What is ‘Predestination’?

Answer 32

The idea that God chooses specific people to bring them to salvation.

Augustine’s view on predestination leaves humans quite powerless; all they can do is hope that they are part of God’s chosen people. Heaven cannot be earned.

Question 33

What term is used to refer to humanity’s inclination to sin and to be influenced by lust, desires and selfishness?

Answer 33

Concupiscence

Question 34

Define the term ‘God’s Grace’

Answer 34

God’s love of which we are unworthy.

It is seen primarily in his giving of his son, Jesus Christ, to save people (the Elect) from their human nature.

Question 35

What examples did Augustine give as evidence of the fallen weakened state of humans?

Answer 35

Trivial example - not wanting to get out of a WARM BED.

The experience of EROTIC dreams.

DECLINE of civilised societies and lawlessness (such as the decline of the Roman empire.