St. Augustine, one of the most influential figures in the development of Western Christianity, was born November 13, 354, in Thagaste, raised by his mother, Monica, whose greatest desire was for him to become Christian. His teen years were filled with rebellious and sexual acts. He describes his adolescence as being pricked by the “briars of unclean desires” (Confessions, Ch.3, 24). Augustine resisted his Christian upbringing, but after hearing Bishop Ambrose of Milan speak of Christianity, his interest began although he remained wary of converting. Only after experiencing a transformation, through reading Romans 13: 13-14, did Augustine convert to Catholicism. Ordained as a priest, he became the Bishop of Hippo in northern Africa; there, he lived and wrote many of his greatest works until his death in August, 430.

What is “sin”?

Sin, according to Augustine, is misguided love.

● He argued everything in the universe has a predetermined order of importance, and that they should be loved accordingly.

● Everything God created is good. However, there are good and bad ways of loving. To love a thing, even a person, for itself, is to love it in a “lower” manner. Loving "properly," he argued, is loving God through the thing or person. When one loves something with a lesser degree of goodness over something with a higher degree, this goes against the natural order of things and creates sin.

“But nevertheless, it is characteristic of the perverse and disordered spirit to be a slave to the pursuit of the things which divine order and law have prescribed should follow its own bidding” (Book 1, XVI, 116)

A Modern Example: MLB steroid scandals

● Baseball players using steroids love lower things like fame and fortune over everything else, so they are taking steroids in order to preserve the fame and fortune. This perverted love of lower things ultimately leads to the players’ downfall, as the steroids they inject actually destroy their bodies and prevent them from having successful careers. Foremost, however, their downfall is loving the material fame over God which has given the game to humanity.

Question for thought: How does one know how to develop the right relation to worldly things, especially if they do not believe in God?

Why do we sin?

Augustine says we sin because we choose to sin.

● God gave humans the power of free will in order that they may use it to do good in the world.

● Free will gives humans the opportunities to make choices, good and sinful, and it is through the perverse loving of lower things that influences humans to act with their free will in sinful ways.

“Reason has shown that we commit evil through free choice of the will” (Book 1, XVI, 117).

“If a man is a good, and cannot act rightly unless he wills to do so, then he must have free will without which he cannot act rightly. We must not believe that God gave us free will so that we might sin, just because sin is committed through free will” (Book 2, I, V).

A Modern Example: A man steals from a store

● Suppose that a man walks into a store and steals some clothes off the shelf. Obviously this would be a sin, but the real question is why would he steal? The particulars, like he really liked the shirt, or just wanted the rush of doing something illegal are not important. The real reason why the man decided to steal was because he wanted to steal. No one forced him to take the clothes, so he stole of his own free will. The man is exercising his free will, but not in a way that God would want, so in Augustine’s eyes, the man is sinning.

Question for thought: Since God gave humans free will, is he somewhat responsible for the sins humans commit through their free will?

By: Adam Finch and Amy Komsa

References:

Augustine, Confessions, trans.Maria Boulding (New York:Vintage, 1998.)

Augustine, On Free Choice of Will, trans. Anna S. Benjamin and L.H. Hackstaff (Upper Saddle River: Prentice, 1964.)

Bibliography: (http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/augustine).