Henry Imler October 15th, 2006

Can humans be liberated from their flaws in Augustine’s teachings? They cannot; yet, they are to try. Augustine constantly reminds his readers that due to the results of the fall, the human will is in a state of constant rebellion. An example of this is the idea that every sexual act is a sin. Ruether maintains that Augustine thought that due to the fall every sexual act had lust at its root and was the way original sin perpetuated in the world.

Harrison showed Augustine’s reply to conversion and to the question of liberation. He thought that true liberation from our sinful nature would come in the next life. With that said, Augustine also thought that one was to constantly apply the “ask, seek, knock” mindset of Matthew 7:7 to one’s life. It was more important to have this mindset than to have understanding of true doctrine. It seems that for Augustine, the conditions that the fallen world finds itself in prevent any from truly turning towards God. Once the Holy Spirit has instilled in a person the desire for God or the delight in loving God, then a person can use their intellect to try to turn the unruly will towards God. On a side note, Harrison talked about the idea of the weight of the soul and it finding rest in delight on the way towards fully loving God. This seems to mirror Aristotle’s physics of rest, that a body’s natural position is rest. The Greek idea of substances seeking their place seems to factor heavily in Augustine’s metaphysics. I wonder how his explanations would have changed if he knew of the more modern versions of science.

• Christianity , Religion
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