Augustine on Human Nature

Question 1

What are differences in Human Nature?

Answer 1

• Anders Brevik carried out mass murders in Oslo in 2011
• Killed 8 in Oslo with a van bomb, killed 69 in Norway at left wing youth clubs to cleanse the population
• Maximillian Kolbe gave his life away in Auschwitz July 1941
• He joined 9 men in starvation and spared one who had a family and kids

Question 2

What was Jean - Jacques Roussaeu’s view on Human Nature?

Answer 2

• Humans are generous by nature and only act differently in circumstances
  “man is born free and everywhere he is in chains”
• Through competition for resources and power we have lost freedom
• The purpose of life is to cut free from these and enter a ‘state of nature’

Question 3

What is Thomas Hobbes view on Human Nature?

Answer 3

• Thought humans were selfish and animal like
• Humans have the power to reason which allows them to co-operate with each other
• Good of humanity is to overcome the animalistic side and co-operate with each other

Question 4

How did Augustine view the kids at Carthage that he studied alongside?

Answer 4

• Viewed them as a “hissing cauldron of lust”
• They were rowdy, disruptive but he never joined in but did mix with the riotous members

Question 5

What were two important occurrences during Augustines education?

Answer 5

1) Reading Cicero’s ‘Hortensius’, his first real philosophical book which made him want to pursue wisdom, whilst the bible was full of too many contradictions
2) He encountered esoteric Christians called the Manichaeans who answered his questions in Confessions 3.6, who criticised Catholics and their teachings

Question 6

How did Manichaeans influence Augustine?

Answer 6

• In studying Cicero he became interested in the Problem of Evil
• Manichees were an influence who provided a dualist answer

Question 7

What was the Manichean dualist view on Human Nature?

Answer 7

• The world is a battlefield between light and darkness, where the higher soul is a particle of light trapped in the material world
• Humans must liberate the higher soul to allow it to return to greater light
• Lower human soul has material desires and we must avoid these through prayer and abstinence from riches, lust, alcohol and luxuries

Question 8

What was happening in Augustines personal life at the time of Manichean influence?

Answer 8

• At the time he had a mistress with whom he had a son, Adeodatus
• He stayed with her despite not being married, which was uncommon for younger men who often had multiple mistresses
• This experience would influence later writings on powerful psychology on the influence of sex
• He was clearly abstaining from the bad influences the Manicheans warned off

Question 9

What was Augustines change in roles and jobs when he turned 19 and onwards?

Answer 9

• Aged 19 he taught rhetoric at Carthage in 374AD, he left due to the badly behaved students
• He accepted a job in Rome in 383AD
• 384AD offered a job in Milan as an orator, did the ‘honourable thing’ and sent his mistress back to Carthage and engaged within a high-ranking family

Question 10

Why did Augustine move away from Manicheism?

Answer 10

• Manicheasm was unable to explain the latest mathematical and astronomical observations
• No better than superstition
• After talking with the intellectually weak bishop Faustus, it confirmed his move away from Manicheism

Question 11

What was the Platonist view on the soul and evil?

Answer 11

• Influenced by the Plotinus they believed we could merge with the One (God) by ascending realities
• The soul cannot control this material world which is the reason for evil and suffering
• Truth, wisdom and happiness can only be achieved once the soul separates from material influence

Question 12

What was the Platonists theological views?

Answer 12

• They combined Plato’s teachings with that of the New Testament
• They did not believe in a Christ who died for the sins in the world
• They simply saw him as an enlightened being (logos in Johns Gospel) who had pure knowledge of the One

Question 13

How did Platonism Influence Augustine?

Answer 13

• His view of the body and soul became platonic
• Early writings were optimistic in that the soul can find wisdom and happiness through its own efforts
• This solved the problem of evil as evil was not a separate power but merely the failure to do good

Question 14

What removed Augustines doubts about conflicting passages in the bible after Platonism?

Answer 14

• After Platonism he was struggling to make sense of his inner guilt and happiness and met with Catholic Bishop of Milan, Ambrose
• Ambrose taught him to read the Old Testament symbolically, which removed the conflicting passages problem

Question 15

What experience did Augustine share in ‘confessions’ that marked his move to Christianity?

Answer 15

• He shared about a day with his friend Alypius where he tore his hair, hammered his forehead and was weeping
• Sitting under a fig tree he heard a voice tell him ‘take it and read’ which led to him reading copies of St Pauls letters

Question 16

What did Augustine read in Romans that confirmed the move to Christianity?

Answer 16

“Instead put on the Lord Jesus Christ”
- Wisdom was not accessible through personal pursuit of intellect, but only through Gods Grace
- 387AD he had his son Adeodatus baptised

Question 17

Where did Augustine live life as a Christian Bishop?

Answer 17

• 391 AD he joined the monastic community in Thagaste as a priest
• Remind the Bishop of Hippo till his death in 430AD

Question 18

In his later work the ‘City of God’, Augustine opposes the Pelagiuan view point, what is this?

Answer 18

• Pelagian was a Christian Monk who did not believe in the original sin and the guilt it brought on man
• He we have enough free will to overcome sin and that:
• Adam would have died regardless of sin
• Children are born into the prelapsarian state
• No one dies for Adams sin nor are they resurrected by Christ as people lived without sinning before Christ

Question 19

How did Augustine oppose the Pelagian view point?

Answer 19

• Human nature is corrupted after The Fall, people are born into sin and guilt is passed on for this from generation to generation
• Due to this only Gods Grace can save them
• He believed that God would only select a few, ‘the elect’ which shows Manichean influence as they too believed only dew would be freed

Question 20

What was the will before the Fall displayed as in Genesis 1-3?

Answer 20

• Harmony was present as Adam and Eve did their duty to God and all living creatures
• Augustine described it as a time where will and reason were able to co-operate

Question 21

What is the prelapsarian notion of the will being synonymous with love?

Answer 21

• Will is given and created with humans ex nihilism (from nothing), we have free will to do good or evil
• The Will is driven by Cupiditas (SELF LOVE) and Caritas (GENEROUS LOVE)
• These elements of the Will allow us to love ourselves, our neighbour and God

Question 22

How was sex and friendship viewed in the prelapsarian state?

Answer 22

• In paradise Adam and Eve were married as friends and were equals in the friendliness of God
• Sex was secondary to their friendship, only once God said ‘be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth’ was it even a consideration
• Adam would not have sex out of lust, he could summon an erection at will and this harmonious will was in control of the body

Question 23

After the Fall what did Augustine say about friendship?

Answer 23

• He maintained that “nothing truly enjoyable without a friend”
• However you could only gain true friendship through a love for Christ
• Christ chose friends no because they were senators, but because they were fisherman without pride or arrogance

Question 24

Why did Augustine believe Adam and Eve disobeyed God’s commands? In terms of their personal traits?

Answer 24

• He said they acted out of pride as they had a desire to be like God and acted out of pride believing they could be like God
• Pride disallowed a harmonious relationship with God as Cupitidas (self love) had been separated from Caritas (generous love)
• They acted selfishly and out of pride that their self love would make them like God

Question 25

What convinced Eve to disobey in the Garden of Eden? (Quote)

Answer 25

• Satan was an angel who fell from grace due to pride
• In Eden he takes the form of a serpent
  “his ambition was to worm his way… into the consciousness of man”
  “whose unfallen state he envied”
• City of God

Question 26

Explain Augustines quote ‘the evil will precedes the evil act’?

Answer 26

• Despite Satan instilling the idea of disobedience, Augustine maintains it was a choice of free will
• He says obedience is the ‘mother and guardian of all other virtues’ and pride is the cause of all other vices
• He resisted Manichean ideas that it was the body that was corrupt but insisted it was rather the will that was weakened

Question 27

Quote St Paul on the divided will?

Answer 27

“I do not understand my actions… I do the very thing I hate” - Romans
- The will is divided, it knows what to do but cannot due to the fallen will
- This paradoxical state was summed up by St Paul

Question 28

What were the views of Ancient Philosophers, such as Aristotle and Plato, on the divided will?

Answer 28

• They called the weakened will ‘Akrasia’ but questioned whether this was actually true
• e.g If I decide to stay in bed for another 10 minutes after my alarm, is it the weakened will or am I merely showing I can choose what I prefer to do
• Not a lack of moral will power but a preference for one choice over another

Question 29

Sum up Augustines views in ‘Confessions’ Book 8,

Answer 29

• We are in a losing war with the will
• The will is half-wounded and ingrained, like trying to leave a comfortable bed you cannot leave
• Augustine himself could not put behind past experiences with women and embrace celibacy due to the weakened will

Question 30

What was the vision of Lady Continence for Augustine? (Quote)

Answer 30

• The lady calling him to a pure, serene and chaste life is not enough to overcome his desires
  “I was still listening to the futile mutterings of my lower self”