Augustine's rejection of the free-will defence: an overview of the late Augustine's theodicy (original) (raw)
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Augustine and the Justification Debates: Appropriating Augustine's Doctrine of Culpability
Trinity Journal, 2005
This paper is divided into two main sections. The first section discusses Augustine’s doctrine of culpability as seen in his treatment of original sin, and concludes briefly with the impact it has upon his doctrine of justification. The second section of the paper appropriates Augustine’s soteriology in light of wider evangelical soteriology generally, and Reformed thought, specifically.
St. Augustine's Doctrine of Original Sin
Augustinian Studies, 2010
This paper is an exposition of St. Augustine’s account of original sin, which I argue is composed of five somewhat independent doctrines. In brief, his view is that all human beings participated in Adam and Eve’s primal sin, and thus inherit a common guilt and a constitutional fault, as well as a penalty. Augustine is not clear about how to understand human solidarity with the first couple, and he is divided in his ideas about how sin is inherited. He is confident, however, that human solidarity with the primal sin leads to a universal penalty of mortality and weakness that, though evil, is not itself sin, as well as further sin: an inborn constitutional fault that Augustine calls carnal concupiscence (meaning “disordered love”).
Saint Augustine: a conflict between the grace of god and the human being's free choice of the will
2016
First, and most of all, I would like to express the deepest appreciation to Professor Tia M. Kolbaba, for her assistance, guidance, and patience throughout the process of writing this thesis. Without her guidance and persistent help this thesis would not have been possible. I would like to thank my committee members Professor James Turner Johnson and Professor Emma J. Wasserman for their time and willingness to be part of this study. I am also grateful to all the lecturers in Department of Religion. I also would like to thank my friend Ümit Atlamaz who proofread this thesis. Also importantly, I would like to thank the Turkish Government for its financial support. Without the financial support of the Turkish Government Ministry of National Education, which offered me a scholarship for graduate studies, this work would not have been possible. Finally, I would like to thank my family for their unceasing encouragement and support.
EVIL IN THE WORLD: A PHILOSOPHICAL SEARCH IN THE PERSPECTIVE OF SAINT AUGUSTINE.
The argument on the problem of evil has being a dominant argument within the domain of philosophy of religion. The argument goes thus: If there is an omnipotent, omniscient and omnibenevolent God, how and why is there evil and suffering present in our world today? Augustine developed a theodicy to answer this question. He takes the Genesis story of ‘The Fall’ literally, and uses it to argue that God had intended the world to be perfect. However, due to humans disobeying him, they have brought about evil in the world. In Genesis 3 the story of Adam and Eve speaks of the serpent that convinced Eve to pick from the tree of ‘knowledge of good and evil’, which God had forbidden. She was tempted by the serpent, and as a consequence, the state of perfection was ruined by human sin and the delicate balance of the world was destroyed. This tells believers that it is not God's fault, but humans', who gave in to temptation. Therefore, they can still hold belief in the God of classical theism. Augustine also believed that the sin of Adam is seminally present and passed on to all humans. This is the so-called ‘original sin’. As a result humanity could no longer remain in the paradise God had originally created. Augustine argues that evil is as a result of humans abusing the gift of free will. Humans were created perfect, with the capacity to make choices and decisions for evil as well as good. Human free will means that God would not interfere to prevent humans from committing acts that were either evil in themselves, or that brought about evil consequences. In fact, God could not have created man without free will, because the call to participate in the love of God implies the possibility of free choice, because to love cannot but be an act of freedom in the sense that man can choose to love God or not to love him. Augustine further developed his argument by claiming that evil is not a substantial being; therefore God cannot be responsible for its existence. He affirmed that God made a good world but humans chose not to obey God, so the goodness of the world was damaged. He now understood evil to be privatio boni, which means 'the privation of good'. In other words, something becomes evil when it ceases to be what it is meant to be, or stops doing what it is meant to be doing.
Recherches de Théologie et Philosophie Médiévales, 2012
This essay aims to combine a historical and a theoretical approach to Augustine’s radical insistence on the absolute dominion of divine providence in the beginning of faith (initium fidei). It revisits the development of Augustine’s conception of initium fidei with emphasis on the actual effects of divine grace in the psychological process of willing. By appealing to Augustine’s later reflection on the power (potestas) of the will, it shows that his growing stress on the absolute authority of grace in his final years accords with his deepened original understanding of the will and its freedom against a deterministic background.
2012
The content of Christian theology is nothing if not complex and nuanced. Faith, in essence, may be something relatively simple; an orientation of the heart, an intention of the will, a determination of religious identity. But as soon as the person of faith takes up the Anselmian challenge to seek understanding of that faith, problems of where to start and how to proceed quickly become acute. Many easy solutions are offered, of course, and most of those are of dubious intellectual quality, short-changing both the integrity of the faith and the veracity of its supposed cognition. They result most often in misinformed fundamentalism or other variants of stifling naïveté. But for many Christian believers seeking to deepen their knowledge and understanding by becoming students of theology there are many worthy guides. This second edition of Anderson's Journey is one of particularly good value. It purports, in its preface, to offer a 'trusty companionship for the journey' as well as to present 'a hearty invitation' to undertake the journey in the first place (p. ix). And in an attempt to make the journey as relaxed and enjoyable as possible the intellectual demands along the way are lightened by the insertion of cartoon comment that can, at times, provide critical insight and reinforcement of a main idea by way of providing a shaft of humorous light. For some, however, they may be more of a sideline distraction, and there are times when it seems that without a deeper knowledge the point of a cartoon may in fact be lost. Still, the overall impression is of a book that deals with complex and heavy topics in a most appealing manner, and succeeding in that on the whole. One very interesting feature is that, although the book has been written and structured in a historically developmental fashion, the preface presents an alternate format whereby the book could be read thematically. By a judicious selection of provided readings, nine discrete theological topics-Faith and Reason, the doctrines of God,