Augustine

Question 1

When was Augustine alive?

Answer 1

354 and 430 CE

Question 2

What were his parents?

Answer 2

His father was a pagan and his mother was a Christian

Question 3

What sort of life did he live in adolescence?

Answer 3

He lived a wild life and ‘ran wild with lust’

Question 4

What is a key understanding in his teaching about human nature?

Answer 4

His own disgust at his inability to do what he knew he ought to do

Question 5

Where did Augustine return to after his conversion and baptism?

Answer 5

North Africa

Question 6

Where did he become the bishop of?

Answer 6

Hippo

Question 7

What did Augustine spend his life doing?

Answer 7

Writing prolifically and caring for the spiritual needs of his parish

Question 8

What do feminists accuse Augustine of?

Answer 8

Misogyny

Question 9

What does he base his views about the relationship between men and women on?

Answer 9

The story of the creation and Fall found in Genesis 2-3.

Question 10

What does God say in Genesis 2: 18?

Answer 10

“It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.”

Question 11

What does Augustine conclude from Genesis 2: 18?

Answer 11

Eve is made to be Adam’s helper and her primary role must be procreation, as a male companion would be better for every other task, e.g. better for physical labour and better for conversation.

Question 12

What has always been a part of God’s plan?

Answer 12

Sex; ‘Go forth and multiply’

Question 13

What does Augustine believe Adam & Eve’s relationship was like?

Answer 13

He believed that they did have sex, however, in the prelapsarian state sex would have been a rational act based on love. Adam and Eve were companions and sex was one aspect of that rather than the motivation for their relationship.

Question 14

What does Augustine believe was the God-given hierarchy?

Answer 14

The woman was subordinate to the man (the Bible also explicitly refers to the woman’s subordination to her husband where they are told to ‘obey’ their husband)

Question 15

What could be an analogy for women’s subordination?

Answer 15

The relationship between parents and child: both are equally important but it is still natural for the parent to rule.

Question 16

What is the subversion of the God-given order?

Answer 16

• Humans disobey God
• Woman leads man into sin
• Bodily desire overrules reason and understanding

Question 17

How does Augustine interpret Eve’s punishment?

Answer 17

Both a reiteration of and an increase in her subordinate status: rather than obeying man voluntarily out of love (as in the traditional marriage vows) he is to become her master.

Question 18

What are Augustine’s views on marriage?

Answer 18

For Augustine, marriage was the closest that a couple could get to the pre-Fall relationship between Adam and Eve. In marriage men and women relate together as friends, sex could occur for the procreation of children (its original purpose) and woman could obey out of love.

Question 19

What does Augustine believe about the soul?

Answer 19

Both body and soul are created by God.

As both body and soul come from God, both are good and both are an essential part of what it is to be human.

Question 20

What did Augustine say about the relationship between the body and soul?

Answer 20

The soul, being rational, moral and capable of understanding was to be the ruler of the body.
The body was also essential as the vehicle for the soul. It enabled humans to interact with the physical world and carry out the command to procreate. .

Question 21

What are the soul’s two functions?

Answer 21

Obedient function: which is concerned with obeying the things above it. The soul must be capable of understanding the instructions given by God.
Deliberative function: this is the decision making part of the mind. Augustine believed that the deliberative soul would have a slightly different role for men and women.

Question 22

What could become a burden on the soul?

Answer 22

The corruptibility of the body

Question 23

What did Augustine call evil?

Answer 23

A privation - a lack of good

Question 24

How does Augustine explain evil?

Answer 24

God created humans good but with free will. If God had created humans who always chose to do good then they would not have real free will. Augustine believed that evil was a lack of the good that God intended for the world. Evil is an absence of good.

Question 25

What is concupiscence?

Answer 25

He believed that the Fall left lasting damage on human nature. The soul’s rebellion against God caused a rebellion of the body against the mind.

Question 26

What is an example of concupiscence?

Answer 26

Any action in which bodily desire or animalistic drives overrule the judgement of the rational soul (for Augustine, the prime example of this being sex)

Question 27

What does Augustine see as proof for sex being an example of concupiscence?

Answer 27

The sexual organs can both be active when the mind does not want them to be and passive when the mind wants the opposite

Question 28

What outdated ideas can Augustine’s theory be challenged by?

Answer 28

• The Fall (challenged by evolution)
• Belief in a spiritual soul (challenged by materialism/physicalism)
• Inheritable corruption (i.e. original sin passed on by the lust inherent in sex)