Augustine on Human Nature
Summary
TLDRThis video explores Augustine's teachings on human nature, focusing on the profound impact of the Fall. Augustine believed that before the Fall, humans existed in harmony, with body, will, and reason in balance. After the Fall, pride led to the breakdown of this harmony, resulting in weakened willpower and uncontrolled desires, including lust. Augustine's views on original sin, the transmission of sin, and the necessity of God's grace for salvation are discussed, as well as modern critiques by figures like Richard Dawkins and Steven Pinker, alongside contrasting theological perspectives.
Takeaways
- 📜 Augustine's teachings on human nature are central to Christian thought and deeply influenced by the concept of 'the Fall'.
- 👥 Augustine was influenced early in life by the Manicheans (dualist thinkers) and later by Platonism (followers of Plato).
- 🌳 According to Augustine, before 'the Fall', Adam and Eve lived in harmony, with their bodies, will, and reason perfectly balanced.
- ❤️ Augustine viewed human relationships, particularly marriage, as based on friendship, with sex being secondary and for reproduction only.
- 🍎 The Fall was caused by human pride, as Adam and Eve sought to be like God, leading to a disruption in their relationship with Him.
- ⚔️ After the Fall, Augustine explains that the will became weakened, leading humans to struggle with desires for food and sex.
- 👶 Augustine's idea of 'original sin' suggests that sin is transmitted through reproduction and that all humans inherit this flawed nature.
- ✝️ Augustine believed that salvation comes through God's grace, with Jesus Christ's death being key to overcoming original sin.
- 🧠 Modern critics like Richard Dawkins and Steven Pinker view Augustine's ideas, particularly original sin, as irrational and outdated.
- 🌍 Theologians like Reinhold Niebuhr argued that rejecting the concept of sin leads to dangerous moral complacency, as seen in modern history.
Q & A
What were the two main influences on Augustine's early life?
-Augustine was influenced by the Manicheans, who believed in a dualistic battle between light and darkness, and the Platonists, who followed the teachings of Plato.
How did Augustine view human nature before and after the Fall?
-Before the Fall, Augustine believed human nature was in harmony, with the body, will, and reason balanced. After the Fall, this harmony was disrupted, leading to a weakened will and a disordered relationship with God and others.
What role does pride play in Augustine's understanding of the Fall?
-Augustine viewed pride as the root cause of the Fall. Adam and Eve's desire to be like God, which led them to eat the forbidden fruit, was driven by pride, which he classified as disobedience and the origin of all vices.
How does Augustine's view of friendship differ from his view of sexual relationships?
-Augustine believed that friendship was the highest form of human existence, especially between Adam and Eve before the Fall. Sex was secondary to friendship and was not lustful, only intended for reproduction.
What is Augustine's concept of 'double death'?
-Augustine's 'double death' refers to the death of the human relationship with God after the Fall and the physical mortality that humans experience as a result of original sin.
How does Augustine explain the transmission of sin?
-Augustine believed that sin is transmitted through reproduction. While babies may be born without sin, they inherit the capacity to sin due to human nature's corruption.
What is Augustine's stance on free will and predestination?
-Augustine initially believed in free will but later leaned toward predestination, concluding that human nature's susceptibility to sin, ignorance, and death made it impossible for most people to be saved without divine intervention.
How does Augustine believe the damaged will can be saved?
-Augustine believed that the will could only be saved through God's grace, specifically through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, which removes the original sin inherited from Adam and Eve.
How do modern interpretations of Augustine’s teachings on the Fall differ from traditional views?
-Many modern Christians interpret the Fall as an allegory for spiritual and psychological life rather than a historical event, seeing it as a representation of human susceptibility to temptation and imperfection.
What criticisms have been made against Augustine’s views on original sin and sexuality?
-Critics like Richard Dawkins and Steven Pinker argue that Augustine’s views on original sin are irrational, with Dawkins criticizing the focus on sin and guilt, while Pinker blames religion, especially Christianity, for social ills related to repression. Augustine’s emphasis on sex has also been linked to centuries of guilt and repression.
Outlines
📜 Augustine's Early Life and Influences
This paragraph introduces the focus of the video: Augustine's teachings on human nature. It briefly discusses Augustine's early influences, including the Manicheans, who believed in a dualistic world of light and darkness, and the Platonists, followers of Plato's teachings. The speaker notes that while Augustine rejected Manichean views, both influences shaped his thinking. The main focus then shifts to Augustine's view that human nature was profoundly affected by 'the Fall,' emphasizing the harmonious state of body, will, and reason before the Fall and how the will, created 'ex nihilo' (from nothing), plays a central role in love and choice.
🍎 The Fall and the Consequences of Pride
Augustine's interpretation of the Fall and the role of pride is central in this paragraph. Before the Fall, Adam and Eve lived in harmony, with sex being a part of their relationship but secondary to their friendship. Augustine sees pride as the root cause of the Fall, where Adam and Eve's desire to be like God led them to disobey Him. The consequence of this disobedience was the loss of harmony with God and the weakening of human will, making it more susceptible to bodily desires, such as hunger and lust.
🌀 The Weakened Will and Original Sin
This section delves into the concept of the weakened human will after the Fall, where Augustine suggests that humans are prone to uncontrolled desires, particularly lust. The will, while rational, struggles against bodily impulses, leading to a condition of 'concupiscence,' or uncontrolled lust. Augustine introduces the idea of 'double death'—the death of the relationship with God and physical death—as a result of the Fall. He also explains how original sin is transmitted through reproduction. Augustine’s views on predestination and the limited capacity for salvation are touched on, contrasting early free-will beliefs with the inevitability of sin.
🔄 Augustine’s Struggle with Predestination
This paragraph explores Augustine's eventual conclusion that humans, influenced by sex, ignorance, and death, cannot overcome sin without divine intervention. He wrestles with the concept of predestination, where only a few are saved, despite the attractiveness of free will, which allows moral choices. Augustine believes that perseverance in faith and hope can help humans reach the 'Summum Bonum' or highest good. Ultimately, salvation can only come through God's grace, as manifested through Jesus Christ’s sacrifice, which removes the original sin inherited from Adam and Eve.
🔎 Modern Interpretations of Augustine’s Views
This paragraph discusses how Augustine's ideas are interpreted today, with many Christians viewing the Fall as an allegory for spiritual and psychological struggles rather than a literal event. The text emphasizes the journey from innocence to the complexities of human existence, including the capacity for great achievements and horrors, such as the Holocaust. The paragraph also introduces critiques of Augustine’s ideas, notably from Richard Dawkins, who views original sin as irrational, and Steven Pinker, who criticizes the role of religion, especially Christianity, in social ills.
⚔️ Criticism of Augustine’s Views and Legacy
This final paragraph summarizes the criticisms of Augustine’s emphasis on sex and original sin, which some believe has led to centuries of repression and guilt. It highlights Reinhold Niebuhr’s view that post-Enlightenment thinking has failed to adequately address human sinfulness, especially in the wake of events like the World Wars. The comparison between Augustine’s view of redemption through God's grace and Freud’s psychoanalytic approach is discussed, noting that while both focused on human sexuality, their solutions diverge sharply.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Augustine
💡The Fall
💡Original Sin
💡Manicheans
💡Platonic Rationalism
💡Will
💡Pride
💡Double Death
💡Summum Bonum
💡Grace
Highlights
Augustine's early influences include the Manicheans and Platonists, shaping his thoughts on human nature.
Manicheans believed the world is a battlefield between light and darkness, but Augustine later rejected this belief.
Platonists influenced Augustine's views on rationality and the tripartite nature of humans: body, will, and reason.
Augustine's teachings on human nature revolve around the concept of 'The Fall' of Adam and Eve, which disrupted harmony between body, will, and reason.
Before The Fall, human nature was in harmony, with the will capable of choosing good or evil and being synonymous with love.
Augustine emphasizes that Adam and Eve's relationship was one of friendship, with sex being secondary and non-lustful, purely for reproduction.
Pride led Adam and Eve to disobey God, triggering the Fall, which Augustine views as the root cause of all vices.
After the Fall, the human will became weakened and unable to control bodily desires, especially food and sex.
Augustine introduces the concept of 'divine id to will' or 'akrasia,' where humans know what is rational but are unable to follow it due to weakness.
The concept of original sin and double death: spiritual death (separation from God) and physical death, which humans suffer after the Fall.
Augustine suggests that original sin is transmitted through reproduction, impacting all future generations.
Augustine initially believed in free will but later concluded that humans are subject to influences like sex, ignorance, and death.
Predestination, according to Augustine, means that only a select few will be saved, but humans should still strive for the Summum Bonum (the greatest good).
Augustine's answer to the weakened human will is God's grace, which redeems humanity through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
Contemporary criticisms of Augustine come from figures like Richard Dawkins and Steven Pinker, who view his ideas as irrational and outdated, especially regarding original sin and sexuality.
Transcripts
hello and welcome to the first of my
videos on developments in Christian
thought for OCR religious studies is a
year one and this particular video is
going to focus on August ins teachings
on human nature now the book goes into
quite a lot of detail about Augustine's
early life and influences I'm not going
to do so not because I don't think it's
worth it because it obviously is but
it's something that you can have a look
at yourself and the other thing is that
I'm not necessarily sure that it's going
to feature that heavily in the exam but
you never know so don't take my word for
it but to briefly mention Augustine
basically had two influences in his
early life one of his earliest
influences was that of a group of people
called the Manicheans Manicheans were
duelists who basically believed that the
world is a battlefield between the
lights and darkness they also believed
that suffering and evil were caused by a
lower evil power and their views were
quite controversial and those people who
mannequins could face prosecution and
persecution for their view so it's
something that Augustine rejected fairly
on fairly early on but no doubt was
influenced by it secondly he came under
the influence of a group of
intellectuals called the plate lists it
goes without saying that they followed
the teachings of Plato so as I have
already said this video is focused on
Augustine and human nature according to
Augustine human nature is profoundly
influenced by an event called the fall
which I'll go into in a little more
detail but basically Augustine says that
before the fall Adam and Eve lived in
harmony
and during this time the human body will
and reason we're in complete harmony so
if you like the human being is a kind of
tripartite being it comprises of the
human body of will and of Reason which
are held in balance and God created the
will X Neil oh now Agustin talks about
the world quite a lot so that's the
thing to focus on basically X Neil o is
from nothing
and the will can choose good bad to
accept or reject God the will is also
synonymous with love both self love and
generous love as I said before the fall
the human body its will and reason we're
in harmony and had a harmonious
relationship they kind of balanced each
other out and this can be seen in the
kind of relationship between Adam and
Eve
now Augustine differs from other
theologians by suggesting that Adam and
Eve were married in paradise and that
their relationship was one of friendship
however as the Bible says God commanded
Adam and Eve to go out and multiply and
so they were also sexual partners
however this was secondary to their
friendship friendship according to what
augustine is the highest expression of
human existence sex was therefore not
lustful but simply in order to reproduce
and after the fall friendship becomes
much more complicated and anguished and
in particular friendship between men and
women now as most people will know Adam
and Eve found temptation and they took a
fruit from the forbidden tree of
knowledge
now Augustine says that this is because
they desire to be like God and that this
kind of desire to be like God was as a
result of the human trait of pride
now we might regard pride as being
something you know which it could be
both good and bad in Augustine's case he
definitely thinks it's bad he says that
Adam and Eve decided to experience good
and evil by taking a fruit from the tree
of knowledge and the consequence being
that they no longer could enjoy a
harmonious relationship with God in
Augustine's version Satan doesn't cause
the fall but basically provides the
stimulus to disobey God
that's a another important factor now as
I've said Augustine considers pride
something which we might classify as
disobedience to be the cause of all
vices he says that because of this pride
because of what they have done Adam and
Eve now find themselves in a situation
where the will is in a weakened state
and it's basically unable to control the
body and craves two things food and most
importantly sex an Augustine goes on to
describe this as a divine ID to will or
as the ancient Greeks would call it a
crazier this is a will that possesses
rationality but is also susceptible to
weakness we can probably you know
illustrate this by giving the case of
you know you find yourself on a Monday
morning that the alarm goes off at 6:30
you know you have to get up because you
want to get ready for college or
whatever it might be and you find
yourself hitting the snooze button and
the rational side of you would say that
you have to get up and the irrational
side a weakened side of you basically
says hit the snooze button in the case
of Adam and all men in particular this
has led to a condition which I had
struggle of struggled to say come since
basically uncontrolled lust
now you know not content we're trying to
defeat me with another with a first
difficult word he oughta sting describes
a post lapse Aryan world basically post
lakhs Aryan is after the fall in this
world that humans suffer from original
sin and this is done denoted by a couple
of things the first is double death and
the second is the transmission of sin
and terms of double death Augustine
basically describes that as the death of
our relationship with God as it was
prior to the fall and also our own
mortality with regard to the
transmission of sin basically suggests
that sin is transmitted through
reproduction and so essentially babies
may well be born without sin but they
have the capacity to develop sin as
Augustine will described as say you know
later in terms of free will Augustine's
views change from initially believing in
free will through leading a life of
platonic rationalism so note the
influence of the plate lists to the
conclusion that sex ignorant and death
were too much for humans to overcome you
know they're basically susceptible to
sex ignorance and death that can't be
helped
and they will be influenced by that this
means that for Augustine predestination
meant that only a few people would be
saved now Augustine finds himself
slightly troubled by the idea and that
he believes in predestination because as
we'll see mostly illusions like the idea
of free will because it gives human
being
the capacity to do right or wrong
without God influence in those decisions
but Augustine says that humans should
persevere in hope and faith basically to
achieve what he calls the Summum bonum
the greatest good so Augustine's final
question is basically to ask how the
damaged will can be saved his answer is
through God's grace he says that this is
through the gift of Jesus Christ whose
death or through whose death the
original sin of Adam and Eve will be
removed so that's essentially
Augustine's
theory and as you can imagine that's
being written several hundred years ago
so the next question must be how do we
interpret Augustine today for many
Christians they see the fall is not a
historical event but as an allegory of
their spiritual and psychological life
they would say that this sort of
description that Augustine provides is
describing a journey which embraces both
innocence and the harsh realities of
life you know the fact that we are not
perfect human beings and that we are
susceptible to temptation the rejection
of God etc etc on a wider scale it also
shows how the human experience and
includes no great inch Eve McCune oh
great achievements and also you know the
horror of say for example the Holocaust
however you can imagine that this is not
without its criticism for the scientists
Richard Dawkins he believes that
original sin that is irrational and
dangerous as a biologist he says that
human corruption wasn't simply the
result of two human beings that's
nonsensical to him
he also points out that Christianity is
obsessed with sin guilt repressed
sexuality etc then he seems that he sees
these as kind of irrational hangouts and
lastly he says that the idea of God
restoring human nature by killing Jesus
is both irrational and seemingly met
sadomasochistic someone who would agree
with Richard Dawkins views is the
psychologist Steven Pinker he points out
that religion and a particular and
particularly Christianity of being
responsible for a number of social ills
but now you've now been subject to post
enlightened rationalism and what he
would call the humanitarian principle in
other words we kind of reject
Augustine's views and have a much more
rational perspective about the world
however again this this view is not
without its critics
in contrast the theologian Reinhold
Niebuhr pointed out the post
enlightenment sinking has failed niba
died in in I think about 1971 and lived
through the second world war and he
would point out that you know the
horrors of the first Second World War of
starvation etc amply illustrate the fact
that kind of post enlightenment sinking
has failed and the people sort of ignore
sin at their peril the last thing to say
about Augustine is that he's faced a
good deal of criticism that his emphasis
on sex in particular has led to
centuries of repression and guilt
familiarity with you know with the with
the teachings of Christianity would see
that very often you know sex is a
subject best avoided how
in the twentieth century we saw the work
of Freud and Freud appears to develop
many of Augustine's theories about sex
and despite rejecting Christianity and
seeing Christianity and other religions
as mere superstition however there are
differences obviously for Augustine
redemption is through God's grace but
for Freud it's through psychoanalysis so
hopefully that will give a reasonable
overview of Augustine's
a view of human nature and my next video
will be basically on death and the
afterlife
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QUEM FOI SANTO AGOSTINHO?
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