Explain, interpret and comment on St Augustine's teachings o
Augustine was born in the Numidian town of Thagaste (eastern Algeria) in AD 354. At the time the Roman province of Africa and surrounding lands were secure. Augustine describes his relationship with his mother, Monica (a devout Christian), as a close bond but he describes a different and cold attitude towards his father. At the age of seventeen Augustine, with the help of a rich neighbour, proceeded to the university of Carthage where he studied rhetoric, which was the art of how to speak and write correct and eloquent Latin. Augustine excelled at these studies and became a teacher where he taught sons of nobility allowing him to make many contacts in high places.Being connected to the church, Augustine decided that he could not devote his life to the "philosophers quest for truth", and so he turned to the bible for guidance finding but it contradictory and repulsive. He then became very impressed with Monasticism because many members of the sect had renounced sex. He later rejected monasticism as he found that many myths were inaccurate and just as open to criticism as the bible. Augustine became a member of Neoplatonism and called himself a Christian Platonist. In the fourth century he resigned his chair of rhetoric, renoun
This also supports Augustine's ideas of original sin because of how it shows that the facts of sexual physiology are nothing to do with the sins of an individual, meaning that it doesn't just happen to one man because of what they have done, but that it happens to every man because it is inherited from Adam and the original sin. He suggested the original sin theory, and how 'the fall' of man betrayed and rebelled against god, thus causing conflict within an individual self. I believe Augustine's teachings are very interesting and make good points which would be appealing to people who theorise along similar lines and/or share similar opinions about the acceptability of sex for pleasure rather than for procreation. These acts Augustine called concupiscence. My personal opinion is that Augustine may have issues with his own sexual nature, or the sexual nature of society as a whole, as he believes sex is still a sinful act even within marriage. The story of Adam and Eve could be described as a, "multi-layered myth that has a variety of meanings"Augustine says that because of 'the fall', man has a love of him self and not a love for god. Augustine dismissed this by suggesting god's commandment to the first human beings was to "increase and multiply", and so even if 'the fall' never took place and Adam and Eve stayed in the garden of Eden they still would have procreated. These teachings only supported, in Augustine's view, his doctrine of original sin. Knowing that the sexual drives of men and women cannot be controlled without training, Augustine suggested that the likely reason for sex within marriage is for the satisfaction of the couple. Sex can reflect the love between two people thus does not have to be considered a sin, even if it avoids procreation by use of contraception. Augustine believed that the sexual drive of fallen men is a prime example of concupiscence, because the sexual urge is of such power that it often leads to wrong doings such as sexual assault. This however he argued is a sin, but only a minor one and can be forgiven if procreation is not excluded. The corruption of our nature was enforced by drives not from the soul; they arise independently of will but cannot be controlled, leading us into wrong.
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