hello to you I do hope you're well welcome to this AEV religious studies revision video I'm Ben Wardle and today we are talking about St Augustine and original sin for OCR developments in Christian thought and we've got a lot to talk about today we'll be covering all of the ao1 knowledge and the ao2 evaluation and we've also got lots of synoptic links to make across the course as well for example we can talk about Augustine in the philosophy of religion paper if we're writing about evil and suffering and we can also talk about him and his influence on Catholic sex ethics if we are talking about sex ethics in the ethics section of the course so yes lots of links that we'll be making because St Augustine has been very influential in particular on Catholic theology so before we actually get started what I would like you to do please is find some paper maybe a notebook or a sheet of paper you've got and actually write down everything you can already remember about St Augustine so literally take a blank page a blank sheet and then write down everything you already know so when you hear the name St Augustine and you hear the term original sin what thoughts come to mind what key quotes for example what key Concepts what key ideas and this is about seeing what ao1 and ao2 knowledge you already have and it will be really helpful for us to then build upon that knowledge in today's video and then we'll actually come back to that sheet of paper at the end and we'll be asking what do you now know that you didn't know at the start of the video so just take a couple of minutes to note down everything you already know all of that prior knowledge you already have about St Augustine and original sin and now that we've done that let's get started with a quick look at the OCR specification because this sets out everything we need to know on St Augustine and original sin or as OCR put it Augustine's teaching on human nature now the specification is so important when it comes to your revision and exam preparation because as I say it sets out all of the key knowledge and content that we need to know for the exam so for this section of the course we need to know about Augustine's interpretation of Genesis 3 which is the fall when Adam and Eve misuse their Free Will and eat from the Tree of knowledge so we need to know about the state of perfection before the fall in the prelapsarian world and Adam and Eve's relationship in that world as friends and then we also need to know about lust and selfish desires which are the result of the Fall we need to know about Augustine's key teaching that original sin is passed on through sexual intercourse and that it is the cause of human selfishness and lack of Free Will lack of stability and corruption in all human societies so we'll be looking at the consequence es of original sin and what life is like in the post latharian world as a result so we'll be talking about how all people are born with original sin and they're born into a sinful Fallen society and then we also need to know about Augustine's teaching that only God's grace his generous love can overcome sin and the rebellious will to achieve the greatest good so then we Link in with ideas about Jesus Christ that he is sent into the World by God and that he then sacrifices himself on the cross and that is a demonstration of God's grace that because of the Fall because we are born sinful we cannot actually earn our own salvation we are entirely dependent on God's grace so you know again lots of links and connections will be making for example to life after death now what is always really important to look at on the OCR specification are these discussion questions that they include and they include these for every single topic on the spec and these discussion questions are really important because I think they give us quite a good idea of what kind of questions we will be asked in the exam so it's really important that you don't just cover the key content and the key knowledge in your revision but you pay really close attention to these discussion questions so we've got four for this topic and we'll be talking about all four of them in today's video so the first one is whether or not Augustine's teaching on a historical fall and original sin is wrong so that is our core ao2 question isn't it we're going to be looking at the strengths of Augustine's teachings and then those criticisms and weaknesses and we'll be looking at pagus for example and also irenaeus we need to discuss whether or not Augustine is right that sin means that humans can never be morally good so does the fact that we are born with original sin into a sinful world mean that we can never become morally good for example through our own efforts and that we therefore depend entirely on God's Grace for our Salvation we need to discuss whether or not Augustine's view of human nature is pessimistic or optimistic so does he have a really negative View and understanding of uh human nature because we are born sinful with this predisposition towards selfishness lust and sinfulness or is it actually optimistic could we actually argue that he has an optimistic view on human nature and again we'll be looking at that today and finally we need to discuss whether or not there is a distinctive human nature so Augustine is obviously giving the view that humans are born now into a state of original sin that we are sinful from birth and of course that is seen as quite pessimistic isn't it and if we think about the implications of that for a newborn baby the idea that they are born sinful um it is quite pessimistic at least on the surface um but the fourth question that is key because it is this states of nature question and it's this question of how are humans born are we naturally good do we naturally seek to be good people or are we naturally selfish and sinful and that is a question not only theologians have discussed but philosophers as well so we'll spend a bit of time today talking about states of nature so what are we naturally like are we born selfless and with a desire to do good or are we born selfish with a desire to Simply think about ourselves and to you know not consider the needs of others so yes just a general exam tip really when you're revising for this a level always look at the specification because it sets out the key knowledge we need to know but it also gives us those discussion questions which are a really great Focus for your revision and please do remember that it is not just about knowing your key content do not just revise the textbook and try to memorize the key points you need to remember that getting 40 out of 40 getting that a star is just as much about your exam technique as it is about your key content so please make sure you are doing practice essays you are planning P paper questions you are thinking of your own questions that you think could come up because as I say securing that a star in this a level is not just about the key knowledge you can remember but it's about how you then apply it in the exam it's about how you craft and structure your essays so that you do secure the top marks which of course we are aiming for we are aiming to get 40 out of 40 and secure that a star so let's have a look at how we will do that if Augustine comes up in the exam and I want to just start by talking about who St Augustine actually was because he is very influential on Christian thinking and he has had a massive influence on many areas of Christian Theology and ethics now with these topics is important to think about who the philosopher or the Theologian is that's not because you need to then write a biography of them in the exam but it gives you a real insight into why they have come up with the theories they have so it allows us to consider the context in which their ideas their opinions and their doctrines were actually developed so you know really nice contextual information which you can use to inform the judgments you're making about their arguments so St Augustine let's start with the dates shall we born in 354 ad and he died in 430 ad now I love this description of him from The New Yorker Magazine from a profile they wrote they said he is the man who invented sex now of course he's not literally the man who invented sex but he certainly laid the foundations for the Catholic Church's obsession with it so he talks a lot about sexual desire about concupisent and he talks a lot about lust so we really do see in St Augustine's writing and in his theology a real emphasis on the sinfulness of Sex and the fact that it is lustful as a result of the fall and so it needs to be controlled so you know he really has to take responsibility I think for a lot of the negativity around sex and a lot of the shame that's around sex certainly that we see in a lot of Catholic thinking for example so very interesting to see the influence he's had on sex ethics and on Christian attitudes towards sex because for Augustine sex is how original sin is transmitted he says that we transmit original sin to our children through sexual reproduction he had a Christian mother and a pagan father and he actually was raised um by them obviously with Christian values he then went a little bit off the rails um however he did then ultimately convert to Christianity so as I say he did go off the rails we could say and he had very much a head hedonistic lifestyle in his late years and that was of course Very displeasing to his Christian mother H and we know that he was sexually adventurous and promiscuous and we know this because he wrote about it himself he actually wrote a book called confessions and as the title suggests you know he was giving away a lot of his stories and his secrets about that sexually adventurous and promiscuous time in his life so it is very interesting that he was very sexually promiscuous and very sexually adventurous but then his sex ethics now sto people from doing the same that he had all of his fun and then he said right I've had my fun no one else can anymore and he came up with these very strict rules about sex and actually you know teachings around sex which are quite controlling and that are quite restrictive he very much enjoyed the pleasures of the flesh as part of this he enjoyed giving into his physical desires and you know indulging his Temptations but then as I say his life was changed so he went through this phase and he documents that in confessions of his sexual promiscuity before he had this religious experience this conversion experience so we know that he's his life changed when he said he was compelled by a voice to read St Paul's letter to the Romans and this is very important for understanding the ethics that he then develops because he this passage here let us behave decently not in sexual immorality and debauchery not in dissension and jealousy rather clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the flesh which we know Augustine had been doing so this had a really transformative impact on his life because he read this verse from St Paul and as I say that had a really transformative impact on him because he then became a priest he then became a famous preacher and ultimately a bishop the bishop of hippo and he was then later canonized and recognized as a doctor of the church so we've got a real transformation there in terms of St Augustine's lifestyle that he was very hedonistic very sexually adventurous and promiscuous but he then had this conversion experience which led to him thinking we should not be gratifying the desires of the flesh we need to be focused on God and we need to be focused on religion so really interesting to talk about his life there to have a look at his life and that then allows us to understand his understanding of human nature and then of course his ideas on sex ethics as well so I've got another question to ask you at the top of today's session and that is this are human beings born sinful so when we think about human beings and how they are born are we born naturally selfish and sinful or are we actually born selfless and with a desire to do good and is it then for example society that corrupts us and makes us greedy and makes us selfish so this is a key question when we're talking about St Augustine and this idea of states of nature what are human beings naturally like how are we born are we born with a predisposition to be good are we born with a predisposition to be bad or are we just born neutral and then how we Act is completely shaped by our environments so the the question is what is our state of nature are we naturally selfless or selfish the first opinion I'll give you is Bron rouso he believed that nothing is as gentle as man in his primitive State and what he means by that is that human beings are naturally selfless they are naturally good they're naturally very gentle but then they are actually corrupted by Society so for example the desire to own your own property fighting over land the desire to acquire more you know the envy that we have the rivalries the jealousies especially today of course the consumer culture with social media and so rouso would say that actually we are born gentle but we are then corrupted by Society Thomas Hobbs however disagreed with him he said that the life of man is naturally solitary nasty poor brutish and short so he said that humans are born selfish and need discipline from society and he thought that without society and its rules human life would be very short it would be nasty it would be brutish because there would be this war of all against all and it is society that actually saves us from that primitive state if we have a look at uh Richard Dawkins who we talk about a lot on the course don't we a key atheist and scientist he said that we and by that he means human beings alone on Earth can rebel against the tyrrany of our selfish replicators so he's talking about Evolution there isn't he and that evolutionary focus on survival of the fittest and that focus on survival and reproduction but actually Dawkin says there is something about human beings that makes us distinct from the rest of the animal kingdom and it is our ability to develop a selfless morality because Evolution obviously in its purest form I mean I'm no scientist but as I understand it is all about survival of the fittest it's about you surviving so you can reproduce and pass on your Gene to the Next Generation but Dawkins has identified something in human beings that allows us to rebel against that and do selfless things you know so to sacrifice ourselves for a greater good for example so to do things that would seem to go against what our selfish replicators what our genes want us to do another key thinker is John lar a key empiricist he came up with this idea of tabularasa the idea that we are born as a blank slate and so all learn learning is through experience and of course we talk about him when we criticize Plato and Plato's idea that all learning is remembering for John Lock we are actually born as a blank slate and so we are shaped entirely by our environment and by our upbringing and so that leads us to Augustine our main man who believed that we are born into a state of original sin inherited from Adam and Eve now he didn't believe Adam and Eve were created with original th he believed that they were created in this lovely perfect Paradise the Garden of Eden but it is then their actions that introduce sin into the world brought death into the world and that means we are all born into a fallen State and that according to Augustine we are all born as human beings with a predisposition towards sin and selfishness so for Augustine it is because of Adam and Eve that we are all born selfish we are all born with a predisposition to be sinful but the question is what do you think do you agree with that do you think that Augustine is right that we are all born selfish or actually are we born selfless and it is then society that corrupts us so something to think about today and just to get us thinking about this key question of are human beings born sinful so let's really get into Augustine on original sin I want to talk about what original sin is and what Augustine's thoughts are on this before of course we move on to evaluating it so he wrote this in the city of God so this book has got quite a different tone to the confessions because in his confessions he was literally confessing about his hedonistic lifestyle before talking about his conversion whereas the city of God is then one of his key theological texts and he wrote in this that from the misuse of free will there started a chain of disasters he said mankind is Led from that original perversion a kind of corruption at the root right up to the disaster of the second death which has no end and he then says only those who are set free through God's grace escape this calamitous sequence so there's quite a lot to unpack here actually the first thing is that it's from the misuse of Free Will and we're going to talk about the fact that God gave Adam and Eve free will because Augustine says a runaway horse is better than a stone so God lovingly gave Adam and Eve Free Will and he gave them an instruction that they can't eat from the Tree of knowledge in the Garden of Eden what did they do they ate from the Tree of knowledge and he says that that started a chain of disasters so all of the evil all of the suffering all of the sin in the world is caused by Adam and Eve misusing their Free Will which was lovingly given to them by God and that is described as the original perversion and it's called a kind of corruption at the root so you could link that to states of nature the idea that Adam and Eve's original sin corrupts our state of nature and then he says that causes us pain and suffering right up to the disaster of the second death now death is actually really important when it comes to Augustine because he believed that before Adam and Eve misused their Free Will and brought sin into the world they were Immortal they would have lived forever in Paradise in the Garden of Eden but it is as a punishment for their sin that death is brought into the world and so death is brought into the world as a result of original sin Adam and Eve are banished from the Garden of Eden they then have to go through pain suffering and they will ultimately die and so he then goes on to say that this is why Jesus is sent into the World by God in order to save Humanity there's a great quote from St Paul which says death through Adam life through Christ and Augustine says that only those who were set free through God's grace escape this calamitous sequence so what he's saying there is we can't then earn our own self salvation we have to be saved by God through his grace through his freely given unmerited undeserving love and he is saying here that human beings are all born sinful we are all tarnished if you like by original sin because he says all of humanity were present in Adam's loins when Adam and Eve committed the original sin and so we are all born sinful into a state of sinfulness into a fallen world where we suffer and we ultimately die so it is looking quite pessimistic isn't it when we think back to that key question of is Augustine's view on human nature pessimistic or optimistic so let's actually unpack shall we original sin and what all of this means now Augustine's understanding and his belief in original sin is rooted in Genesis 3 and it's rooted in his belief that this should be taken literally so already if we think about our ao2 and our critical analysis there is a dependency here that you take Genesis to be literally true because if somebody does not believe Genesis 3 is literally true that Adam and Eve were literally created and put in the Garden of Eden and then misuse their free will you are not going to get your head around you're not going to get on board with augustin's view that because of that we are all born sinful and we all inherit original sin because if Adam and Eve didn't exist and that event didn't happen then how are we transmitting original sin over the generations um so you know all of Augustine's thinking here his entire Theory depends on a literalistic understanding of Genesis spre so let's find out more about that according to Genesis when God created humans he made them as the Pinnacle of his creation and we know this because it says he made us IM magod day which means in the image and likeness of God and as part of that he gave us free will the Free Will is a gift from God it is something that loving God has done because as Augustine said a runaway horse is better than a stone so it is more loving to give us free will with the risk of us misusing that than to make us into moral robots so that is a key part of God's Omni benevolence that he has given us free will he gave Adam and Eve Free Will so that it could be a loving thing sorry that was really bad English as a loving thing I should have said there apologies So Adam and Eve lived in the Garden of Eden that's where they were placed and it was a perfect Paradise where they would live for eternity and that is really important remember Augustine sees death as a punishment for Adam and Eve's original sin H and there was only one thing that they were told they could not do they could do absolutely anything they could have a lovely time for eternity but there was one thing they couldn't do and that was eat fruit from the Tree of knowledge so of course what does happen we have what is called the fall and this is where the serpent who is Satan Temps Eve to eat from the tree and she does that even though she knew she was not meant to and Adam follows suits and as a result of that because it is the tree of knowledge they realize they are naked so they realize that they're naked and they try to hide from God so obviously they hadn't studied God's omniscience as part of their education and here's the important bit this event is very catastrophic because it has really significant consequences so as a result of their decision to eat from the Tree of knowledge they introduce evil suffering and sin into the world so they are not things created by God he has created this perfect world and he has put them in this perfect Paradise evil suffering and sin are all brought into the world as a result of Adam and Eve misusing their Free Will as a result of them turning away from God and doing what he said they shouldn't do so there is now as a result of this disharmony Between Heaven and Earth so before this obviously things were perfect weren't they there was this perfect harmony God is recorded as walking in the Garden of Eden you know there is this perfect harmony Adam and Eve are going to live for eternity but as a result of their Free Will being misused as a result of the choice that they have made they bring evil suffering and sin into the world there is now this disharmony between Between Heaven and Earth so immediately Adam and Eve are banished from the Garden of Eden and Genesis says that man will now have to toil so work hard in order to earn a living we're also told that women will experience pain during P child birth excuse me so that again is a consequence of their misuse of Free Will and so the fall so this act where they have turned away from God and they have misused their Free Will brings suffering and death into the world it also corrupt friendship so it turns what was a nice friendship between them into lust and that lust now drives human desires and Human Relationships now of course it's very interesting if we link back to what we know about Augustine and his had anistic sexually promiscuous lifestyle it's very interesting to see that that is a focus for him in terms of what the consequence of the Fall actually was so we could say you know was he feeling regretful about those earlier experiences and is this a way of him making sense of that that human beings were once in this lovely state of friendship but now because of Adam and Eve's fall because of the Fall our friendships are now tainted by Lust by concupiscence and that that has now corrupted if you like what were very nice friendships that people had and it's really important to note as part of this that Augustine does not believe evil is something created by God he beli that evil is a privation of good and privation means absence so he does not believe that evil is a thing in itself that is created by God as a punishment he believes that evil is an absence of good that is the result of turning away from God and of course Adam and Eve have turned away from God by misusing their Free Will and disobeying his commands and so evil suffering and sin are all caused by Adam and Eve it is entirely their fault God remember lovingly gave them free will because that is a loving thing to do and then they misused it and so the blame is entirely on them it is completely and utterly their fault and that act their act has consequences for us today it means that we are born sinful because we inherit original sin it is transmitted through sexual reproduction and we are born into a sinful form Fallen World so really big consequences of this action but of course the key bit of ao2 we've got to think about here is that if you don't believe Genesis 3 is literally true then Augustine's entire theory of original thin is undermined isn't it it's completely flawed because if these events didn't happen then how are their consequences for us today if Adam and Eve didn't do this and we weren't supposedly present in their loins then what are we paying the price for of course some people people would say that the fall is symbolic and it represents you know human sinfulness and the fact that we do all give into temptation but I think you can make a really strong argument in your essays that if the fall didn't actually happen then Augustine's entire theory is undermined and so you could say Augustine's theory of original sin and his understanding of human nature is entirely dependent on a literalistic understanding or belief in this having happened so let's talk more about the implications of and the consequences of the Fall so what happened as result of Adam and Eve eating from that tree of knowledge the other point actually that's just come to my mind is that this actually doesn't seem very fair does it that Adam and Eve simply eating from a tree has led to death destruction evil suffering pain in childbirth everybody being born sinful everybody being born into a world of sin we could say is the consequence actually proportional in terms of all they did is eat from the Tree of knowledge now of course you could respond by saying but it's not about what they did in terms of eating a fruit it's about what that represented which is that they were you know um disobeying God but I think you could also make a valid argument in terms of is this proportionate you could also say well if God is omniscient he would have known what Adam and Eve were going to do and what the consequence of that would be so why didn't he intervene to stop it so you know lots of critical thinking that I hope you're already doing as we go through these topics you know for every single ao1 topic or point of key knowledge please please be thinking what criticisms are there does this actually work can we identify fallacies can we identify flaws what problems can we already see here so let's talk about original sin entering the world and as I say original sin the fall has implications for the individual because we are born into a state of sinfulness and society as a whole because it is now in a state of sinfulness or fallenness because we are now in a post lapsarian world so it is after the fall so we are born sinful and with a predisposition towards sin and we are born into a sinful Fallen World so as I say the implication of this is that every human being is born in sin every human being is now mortal as a punishment or as a consequence for that first Disobedience so remember if Adam and Eve had not sinned there would be no death so that key quote from Paul again death through Adam Adam brought death into the world life through Christ that is why Jesus has to give up his life and he has to die on the cross as the ultimate sacrifice in order to save Humanity from their sinfulness and of course that is also why Jesus is uh born through Immaculate Conception because if he'd been born the ordinary way through sexual reproduction he would have inherited original sin and then he wouldn't be capable of saving the rest of humanity so original sin which came into the world at the fall characterizes human nature so that's obviously really important when again we link back to those OCR discussion questions original sin has characterized and corrupted human nature we are all now mortal and we are born with AE predisposition to sin so if you imagine it as like scales the scales of selflessness and um selfishness are now um disu is that even a term they're not balanced anymore let's put it like that because we now have this predisposition towards selfishness and sin and that is from birth because we are born with original sin and Augustine believed that original sin is passed on from Adam and Eve to all generations through sexual intercourse so we are all paying the price for their choice and again you could ask is this fair that we have to pay the price we have to suffer the consequences for something Adam and Eve did in the Garden of Eden so is that fair would an omni benevolent God really allow that to happen or expect that to happen and of course that means that all people are now conceived as the result of lust remember as a result of the Fall those friendships became lustful and so all human beings are conceived they are then born as the result of lust and this is shown in what we call concupiscence and so sexual desire is seen as sinful because sex passes on sin so the fall has corrupted sexual relationships they were once loving now they are lustful and of course as I mentioned that is why Jesus has to be born by Immaculate Conception so that he is not tainted by original sin because remember he is 100% Divine and 100% human and so he is then the L of God who is sacrificed on the cross for the sake of human salvation but all human beings are unable to save themselves because they are in a fallen State and that's why they then depend on God's grace which is shown through Jesus sacrifice and himself on the cross as the atonement and you know that is then how amends are made Between Heaven and Earth humanity and God so before the fall Humanity was characterized by friendship and the leadership humans requ required was gentle however after the fall humans needed proper authority to control them and their rebellious will so of course that's why Augustine is then very strict in his ethics and why the Catholic church today has very strict rules about what you can and you cannot do because human beings are born sinful they are born selfish and they're fueled by lust and concupisent so they need to control themselves or they need to be controlled because of course they can't actually control themselves um in beli that our Free Will which of course was given to Adam and Eve as well is now corrupted you know we now have a predisposition towards sin so hopefully what you can see is how massive the implications are of Adam and Eve's Choice their misuse of Free Will in the Garden of Eden they have brought original sin into the world and that means every human being is born in sin that we all now die that we all suffer uh and of course that we are born into a sinful Fallen society and crucially as well we don't deserve salvation all human beings from the second they're born are sinful and so we don't deserve salvation we can't earn our Salvation we are entirely dependent on God's grace on his unmar undeserved love for us in order to then be saved and go to heaven and that's you know how Augustine really emphasizes the importance and centrality of Jesus Christ so let's just unpack uh free will a little bit more because of course Free Will has played a really important role in this story God has lovingly given human beings free will he gave Adam and Eve free will they have then misused it and as a result of that original sin has happened the fall has taken place and that means we are all born sinful into a sinful world and Augustin believed that free will today is no longer balanced so it's no longer a Kar of we are each born with this idealistic Free Will where we can then freely choose things he believed that our state of nature our human nature is now predisposed towards lust sinfulness and selfishness and that's because it is Tainted by concupisent so here's that quote that I used before and I absolutely love this quote Augustine said that a runaway horse is better than a stone and this is the idea that God lovingly gave Adam and Eve free will because it was the most loving thing for him to do because he was creating them in this perfect paradise and he wanted them to love him by choice he didn't want to make them into these programmed conditioned moral robots so it was important to give them free will because the risk that they might misuse it was um lesser than the um what was I even saying then I've completely forgotten what I was saying do excuse me so the RIS that they might use misuse it um you know was lesser than or it's better than not giving it them in the first place there we go I need some green tea guys do excuse me so he has given them the uh free will because he's prepared to pay the price for them misusing it as that would be better than not giving it to them in the first place so you know it's a greater good let's put it like that so as a result of the Fall which was a misuse of free will our free will now is limited by the fact that people are born tainted by concupisent and so cannot choose the right action every time even by the use of breason so we are all now fallen as we know we're born into a state of sin we inherit original sin and therefore cannot earn our own salvation through our efforts and that is why God's grace is so important we completely depend on God's grace so that is freely given his grace is freely given to undeserving humans and it is seen in the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross and there's a really important link for us to make here actually to the death and the afterlife topic because Augustine believed and this is his key belief on the afterlife that God elects some people to go to heaven and that shows his benevolence because he is still prepared to let some people go to heaven and that of course is despite the fact that everybody is undeserving as they are born into a state of sinfulness because they have inherited original sin via sexual reproduction so even those innocent newborn babies they are in a state of sinfulness because we've all inherited original sin and so for Augustine his belief in is is in election that God selects some people to go to heaven they do not earn their salvation themselves because people cannot because we are inherently intrinsically sinful as a result of original sin which we inherit from Adam and Eve via sexual reproduction and so the election is an example of God's grace that he has sacrificed his son on the cross so that some people can be saved but we have to have faith in that we have to put our faith in Jesus because we can't earn salvation for ourselves because we are sinful because of original sin so hopefully you're seeing here the links that we can make to different topics on the course and for Augustine just how um catastropic Adam and Eve's original sin was just how um consequential as well the choice that they made was that we all pay the price now and that it has implications all the way to this present day for all of humanity and of course I think the key point that we've got to always keep bringing this back to is that this depends on a literalist reading of Genesis 3 and so if Genesis 3 didn't literally happen then the entirety of Augustine's The Odyssey and his whole Theory here is actually undermined and it falls apart really so that's the key criticism that I would like to see you using in the exam so I've just got a little diagram here for you which as you can see is you know very detailed and I've spent a lot of time uh designing this this H I hope gives you a really great visual of everything we've discussed so far so there is that great line from St Paul death through Adam life through Christ so you've got there on the left hand side Adam and Eve they are Miss using their Free Will by eating that Apple from the Tree of knowledge and that is then the fall so that brings in the disharmony that brings in sin suffering death pain destrution that complete separation between Heaven and Earth and that is the fall and that is why God then has to send his son into the world that's why the Incarnation takes place so that through Jesus God's grace can be made visible that God Saves an elect few through Jes Jesus's crucifixion and then resurrection and his resurrection then obviously symbolizes rising from the dead overcoming sin and overcoming death and that is why in St Paul's writing he says death entered the world through Adam and then death is overcome through Jesus Christ because although Adam and Eve brought death destruction sin into the world and we all pay the price for that there is still hope because Jesus Christ conquers sin he pays off the debt and he then secures eternal life and St Paul also wrote If Christ has not been raised your faith is pointless and you are still in your sins so it is that key idea of the resurrection and the crucifixion so those events at Easter as our source of Salvation And of course that is why God had to become a man because in the same way that sin entered the world through a man it has to be overcome and victory has to be secured over it by a man as well so you know that is why God takes on human form because sin entered the world through humans God then has to become human in order to save humans from the sin that they brought into the world and that key phrase you're going to use is that it is God's grace that we can therefore see so in order to start evaluating this what we are going to do is we're going to compare Augustine with a another Theologian who was a contemporary of his at the time called pagus now pagus was not a fan of AUST and he thought a lot of flaws in what Augustine was saying so it's always great to then refer to pagus in our essays when we are criticizing Augustine and as I've put here Pelagius was a theologian he was actually denounced by the church as a heretic because they did side with Augustine and he was known for promoting a system of doctrines which emphasized human choice in Salvation and actually denied original sin so he actually rejected this doctrine of original sin from Augustine and that is why the church then rejected him because the church the Catholic Church sided with Augustine so before we look at pelagius's criticisms and we start to make our own judgments about whether we agree with Augustine or pagus we just need to recap the key points on Augustine so hopefully these points are now familiar to you hopefully I covered all of them in what we've been saying so far and this will just help to consolidate our understanding of augustin's origal sin so what does Augustine say about human nature well he of course said that human nature is damaged by the Fall as a result of the Fall we are all born sinful into a Fallen World on the issue of sin he believes that humans are incapable of avoiding sin because remember we have now got that predisposition towards selfishness and sin and so our will is now such that it has a tendency away from goodness we are corrupted we are tainted by original sin and so we are born into that state of sinfulness with that desire to be selfish we are driven by lust concupisent uh guilt and original sin then Adam sin of course affects all people the full transmits guilt to the whole human race because we were present in Adam's loins and we then inherit original sin through sexual reproduction so humans are born sinful death is then the consequence and punishment for sin so remember Adam and Eve were created Immortal as a result of their misuse of free will a result of their sin death is brought into the world Grace very important concept isn't it humans cannot do any good deeds except by God's grace so they cannot be saved without it so he believed Augustine believed we cannot earn our own salvation Salvation then is seen as the free and unmerited gift of God so the power of the workers shows that God rewards how he pleases not because of actions and remember that is because we cannot earn our own salvation we are all born with original sin so we all deserve to go to hell but then God's grace his benevolence means that he does then save some people and we have to have faith that that will be us we can't earn it we can't do anything to contribute towards it suffering is that all suffering is deserved of course even infant deaths because all are in original sin so suffering is explained and as I say there's a great synoptic link here to the problem of evil and suffering so Augustine's theodicy is that God is not to blame for Ral and suffering it's Adam and Eve we are all paying the price for their original sin we are corrupted by it we are tainted by it and Society is affected by it so suffering is the consequence of Adam and Eve's original sin so again his theodicy when you're talking about this in the philosophy paper is linked back to Adam and Eve God then what role does God play in all of this well God still comes out very well because he's not the one that's caused the suffering is he it was brought in by Adam and Eve when they misused their lovingly given Free Will and they turned away from God so remember evil is a pration privatio bon not a thing in itself so he cannot be blamed for evil because evil is an absence of good it's not a thing in itself as I say the phrase we use is privatio Bonnie and then finally Jesus is very important because he and then obviously his death on the cross and his resurrection is the expression of God's grace the reason he enters the world with that Immaculate Conception and the incarn is in order to save the world so he shows God's grace so that's a little consolidation of Augustine and I hope that's helped to just go back over the key headline points for each of those key issues associated with original sin in terms of plagia then let's bring in his criticisms now shall we and start to make these comparisons before making a judgment and reaching a conclusion whether you side with Augustine or pagus and please do let me know down in the comments so pagus disagreed on the issue of human nature and he said humans can't have a flawed nature because if we did then God would be expecting The Impossible when he expects us to be holy so he says the fact that there are commands in the Bible that God wants us to follow shows that we can't have a flawed nature we must be capable of following them so we can't just be completely sinful because why would God then bother to give us those commands and give us those teachings if we were incapable able of following them so he'd probably be more in sync with John Lock and the idea of tabul Raza that we're all born as a blank slate as a fresh start and it is then our choices so we have the same free will that Adam and Eve had we're not then corrupted by them with that predisposition and that flawed nature and remember plagas rejects original sin so he doesn't believe we're born with that predisposition we're born as more of a blank slay and it's then on our own shoulders it's our decisions to make in terms of th th is is not something that we have to do of course Augustine says we are all sinful and we will all sin because we are all born with original sin for pagus he said humans don't have to sin it is possible for people to be good and choose good sin can only be sin if freely chosen so we can't pay the price for other people's sins we can only pay the price and we can only be held to account for our own sins that are freely chosen on the issue of guilt and original sin plagia said we are all created in the same state as Adam we are only responsible for our own sin we choose to become Sinners excuse me so we are not tainted by Adam an original sin we are born in the same state as him so as I say with the same Free Will as Adam and Eve it is then about what we choose to do so for example if we then choose to sin we'll be punished by that but if we don't choose to sin then we're not going to be punished for sins we haven't done so we can't be punished for something Adam and Eve did in Genesis where when we haven't done anything ourselves in terms of death he does not see death as a punishment for sin for original sin he says death is a biological necessity but not a punishment so a bit more optimistic there about death he says it's something that naturally happens but it's not as a punishment or a consequence of Adam and Eve's original sin on Grace he says that God's grace does assist people in doing the right thing but he sees it as something different to Augustine he said that it is the natural human faculties given by God to help us so our reasoning ability for example our conscience so God's grace is our gift if you like or his gift of us being able to think for ourselves make de decisions think about things consider options so Grace is seen in terms of our ability to think and make judgments rather than being something we completely depend upon um and that is seen through Jesus alone so again he gives a lot more autonomy to the individual and he puts it on the individual's shoulders so you know he does say they can earn their own salvation so on salvation he said humans use their free will to choose God and goodness so their actions in choosing bring the reward and that of course lends itself very nicely to Salvation through works and the idea that you earn your salvation by making the right choices to do the right thing and I think you could link that quite nicely with the parable of the sheep and the Goat couldn't you in Matthew 25 however Augustine saw this as downplaying Grace and minimizing the importance of God's grace and Jesus's resurrection and crucifixion at Easter so Augustine was critical of this because he really did emphasize God's grace which emphasizes God's Omni benevolence and the importance of God and our dependence on Jesus but for pagus he said we depend on Jesus as more of a moral teacher so it's more about what Jesus taught us to do and then we can follow in his footsteps rather than solely depending on uh Jesus's crucifixion and Resurrection in order to save us if that's what God wants so again it gives you more autonomy it gives you more responsibility over your own salvation on the issue of suffering he would say it's not fair to punish innocent babies for something they have not done you cannot say that an innocent newborn baby has been born with original sin so of course he would really disagree with a in there that all suffering is deserved on the issue of God then it would be unjust of God to condemn humans for something they could not help he would not give instructions for example those Commandments that could not be kept because that human nature is so tainted and their Free Will is so corrupted so he sees that as going against the nature of God that God would um punish us or make us pay the price for what Adam and Eve did and then finally on jus he brings up the question of good people in the Old Testament so those people who lived and did good things before Jesus brought salvation because of course if it's only through Jesus's death on the cross that you can be saved the implication of that for all those people before him who were still tainted by Adam and Eve but have not got the chance to uh receive God's grace through Jesus the implication of that is they're just all going to hell and of course he says that doesn't seem fair so he says that good people did exist in the Old Testament before Jesus brought salvation so surely Works should be taken into account in Salvation it can't just be about Jesus's death on the cross and his resurrection because of all those good people in the Old Testament so really interesting to compare Augustine with pagus here and please do Nam drop pagus when you are criticizing Augustine make sure that your ao2 criticisms are anchored in a scholar because that will show The Examiner that obviously you've got the key knowledge but it will also show them that you've got weight to your arguments that you have got a key thinker you've got a scholar you've got one of Augustine's contemporaries to back up your criticisms so I hope that's been helpful to compare him with pagus what we will do now is we'll start to think a little bit more in terms of our critical thinking about Augustine and we'll then have a look at our ao2 strengths and weaknesses so here's my first critical question is August in optimistic or pessimistic on human nature and again remember this is one of our key questions from the specifications so really important that we are considering this question and we're preparing for a potential exam question on it so why might someone say he is pessimistic he has a negative view on human nature well of course he's saying that we are tainted by original sin from the moment we are born even babies and newborn infants are corrupted by original sin and so we can say that is quite unfair it is definitely very negative when you've not actually done anything and Augustine is saying that you are born sinful and when we look at those innocent babies and children do we really think that they are intrinsically sinful and that they are tainted by original sin you know it does seem quite negative doesn't it we can say that there is little opportunity within Augustine's Theory to develop a way from our fallen State and there is no Total escape from it so we are all condemned to suffer and we are all condemned to death and remember death is seen as a consequence and as a punishment for original sin and the thing is there is nothing we can do about it we can hope with our fingers crossed that God's grace will mean we can be saved that we will be elected but there's nothing we can do and so you can say that is quite pessimistic because you are condemned to suffer you are condemned to death and there is only a small glimmer of hope that you might be one of the elect and again you can't contribute towards that there's nothing you can do so you aren't the reason you are sinful because remember you're paying the price for someone else's sin but then there's nothing you can do to earn your salvation either so you might feel a bit helpless there we can say concupisent is an extremely strong force that we cannot escape from and of course Augustine says we are born with that predisposition so you can you know make an argument there that it's pessimistic because it's saying that even if we want to be good we can't because we've got this strong overwhelming Force we've got this pred position that is always going to overwhelm us of course when we're talking about death and the afterlife the idea that God has already decided which select view he will save means we cannot do anything to earn our own salvation and again that could be seen as negative another pessimistic point is that our Free Will has been compromised and we do have a disposition towards sinfulness so you're always going to be moving towards sin and again that could be seen as pessimistic that we don't have that blank slate that we don't have that opportunity Unity to make a decision for ourselves but that we're already predisposed we are paying the price of course with something we have not done and I think that is a key criticism of Augustine's Theory as a whole the fact that all of this comes down to what Adam and Eve supposedly did in the Garden of Eden why are innocent babies paying the price for it in the world today and we could therefore argue that pagus offers a much more optimistic view of human nature freedom and potential in terms of this being seen as optimistic though we need to know why some people might actually argue he does offer an optimistic view of human nature well we could say the fact that God's grace is totally given to undeserving humanity and the fact that it is a freely given gift is very optimistic that God wants to do that and God will do that even though we don't deserve that so that could be seen as optimistic and again reflecting God's Omni benevolence and also the fact that he's worthy of wor worship that he is prepared to do that and that he will do that for some of us even though we don't deserve it we could also Link in of course with Jesus on the cross the fact that Jesus died on the cross to save humans from sin and death that he redeemed humans by paying the price for our sins we could argue that is optimistic because it gives us hope that even though we are Fallen even though we are corrupted and tainted by original sin we can still be saved so you know that can be seen as optimistic as reassuring and is giving hope we could say the church does exist to help Christians on their Journey so of course this emphasizes our dependence on the church the baptism Ceremonies for example wash away original sin and they begin your journey in the church so we could say the sacraments do support Christians in their lives and they have hope of Salvation so we could say that actually there is still hope there is still a bit of optimism that you will be saved and you know life in the church can provide that reassurance and that hope and then finally and I think this is probably the strongest argument for this being an optimistic view we have the key phrase happy fault and this is really interesting this is the idea that without Adam and his original sin there would not be salvation through Jesus Christ so Jesus would not need to exist and therefore the religion would not exist if this hadn't happened so if there had not been the fall and if it was not for original sin then there would not be salvation through Jesus Christ and therefore there would not be a Christianity and so we can describe original sin as the happy fault because of course you've got death through Adam but then you've got life through Christ and so you could not have Christ you could not have Christianity because he would not have needed to enter the world without that happy fault we would all still be in the Garden of Eden now you could argue that that would actually be better because there would be no suffering there would be no pain although of course if we Link in with Bernard Williams who criticized heaven we could say would a perfect place not actually become a Hell in the end because we would get sick of always having our happiest moments day after day after day so we could argue that actually this is a happy fault because without this having happened without the sin of Adam there would not be salvation through Jesus Christ so an interesting one there what I would ask you to do then is make your judgment do you think that Augustine's theory is overall optimistic or pessimistic does he have an optimistic or pessimistic view of human nature what is your conclusion let me know in the comments our next key question and this is a really important one actually is whether Genesis is literal or symbolic please excuse the typo on the screen there I do apologize not literal of symbolic should say literal or symbolic because of course if Genesis is not literally true true then the entirety of this original sin theory is undermined so it really matters for Augustine doesn't it that you take a literalist understanding of Genesis so is that the case is that how people today understand Genesis and if they don't how do they understand it and what does Genesis 3 teach us so as I've mentioned Augustine does have a literalist understanding and his theory of original sin completely depends upon a literalist understanding of Genesis 3 which of course is when the fall happens when Adam and Eve misuse their Free Will in the Garden of Eden because if these events didn't literally happen we would not inherit original sin from Adam and Eve those events are the cause of original sin aren't they and so the implication of this is that that place is the blame for evil suffering and Death on Adam and Eve we all pay the price for their misuse of free will so what happened in Genesis 3 has enormous and catastrophic implications for every single human being today but of course if we link it in again with that idea of it being a happy fault it is also then the reason that Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world in terms of a alternative symbolic understanding then many contemporary Christians do not believe that Genesis 3 is literally true they would see the Genesis account of human Origins as metaphorical rather than literal and they would say that evolution is a key reason why so they would look at the theory of evolution developed in 1859 by Charles Darwin as explaining the history of human beings that we evolved rather than being placed in this perfect garden with the intention of us being there for eternity so Genesis and the story of Adam and Eve as the first humans is symbolic what symbol could that be then well the fall renewal and Redemption can be seen as positive symbols of the religious spiritual life Genesis 3 tells the story of the human Journey towards Perfection and we could argue that that is consistent with the Jewish understanding of Genesis remember it is not just Christianity that considers Genesis an authorative book but it's also very important in Judaism it is the first book of the Torah so in Judaism there is no doctrine of original sin so that shows us it's not just contemporary Christians who would actually not see Genesis as literally true but actually many other people might take that symbolic understanding as as well and we could see the fall as a symbolic moment where we realize our flaws and begin our spiritual life so instead of um the fall having implications for all of humanity we could actually see it as being quite a personal thing that it's a metaphor for your personal journey in life when you realize your flaws and you then turn to God and you think I need to have a dependence on God I need to follow God and I mean you could say that for Augustine himself couldn't you when he had his conversion experience that it is that moment when you realize your flaws you might realize that sometimes you can be selfish you can be driven by lust and so you change your life you turn your life around and you commit yourself to a life within the religion but of course for Augustine that is not sufficient that is not satisfactory he believes that Genesis Bri is literally true and that it has real serious implications for all of humanity today so just again another really important question to think about ahead of the exam and so that just brings us now to the strength and the weaknesses so we're going to conclude by critiquing and evaluating Augustine so just have a think yourself you know what strength can you think of this Theory what's good about it what works what are the best bits of Augustine's um theory of original sin and his understanding of human nature so the first one I think is really important it absolves God from blame for evil and suffering because remember remember evil and suffering are the result of Adam and Eve misusing the Free Will that God lovingly gave them and of course it presents evil as a pration privatio Bonnie so it is not something that God has created but it has come about by human beings turning their back Adam and Eve turning their back on God and his commands we can say it's consistent with scripture for example St Paul writes that all have sinned and fall short of God's glory we also have agreement from aquinus that we all have a sin nature as a result of Adam and Eve so another key scholar is supporting what Augustine believes he wrote We are bound to hold that the first sin of the first man is transmitted to his descendants by way of origin so this is something agreed on by aquinus in terms of that whole states of nature debate we could say it does explain human selfishness it explains how we are born with a disposition towards sinfulness as a result of inheriting original sin from ad and Eve and that is known as our state of nature so we could see it as a really valid explanation for why we do seem selfish we could also say it resolves the problem of natural disasters so again another great link to the problem of evil and suffering because it shows them as the result of living in a fallen world or Society where there is disharmony Between Heaven and Earth it also of course I think this is a real strength emphasizes the importance of God's grace and the significance of Jesus's sacrificial death so his role as the Lamb of God who takes Away The Sins Of The World so that is really emphasized isn't it in this Theory so we could say that a strength of it is that it really does emphasize the importance of God's grace and it illustrates the importance of the crucifixion why it had to happen and then just another one this one's a little bit out there but I thought maybe we could see some consistency with Sigman Freud I mean Sigman Freud was of course an atheist and he believe that belief in God is an illusion but he did share Augustine's belief that sexual desires which Roy called the laido are a main driver of human behaviors and I think because the exam board want us to think about Augustine in the context of states of nature this would be a valid point to make that there is some similarity with a 20th century psychoanalyst that actually in terms of his commentary on human states of nature Augustine is on the right lines about the power of lust concupisent in Freud's words leido on human beings so you know on that note or from that perspective we could see a strength in Augustine's thinking that it's very much shaped around this commentary on human desires and what influences us however we also need to look at weaknesses and but before we do actually just take a minute to think which is the strongest strength in your opinion which one of these do you think is the most successful strength of Augustine that shows actually he has got something noteworthy and something credible to contribute to to theology so just have a think which of these is the best trends for you which one would you be prioritizing in your exam answer let's now have a look at the weaknesses and again do have a moment to think what are the weaknesses here what criticisms have we picked up for example that literalist understanding of Genesis and his dependence on that so just take a minute before we go through them to just think yourself what weaknesses have you identified what criticisms have you got the first one is Richard Dawkins who we've already mentioned today he said that belief in original sin is not only irrational but it's also dangerous because it creates a lot of Shame around things like sex and it makes people feel a lot of guilt that he thinks actually they shouldn't be feeling another criticism is from Steven Pinker who said original sin highlights the irrational superstitions of religion so this idea that because of what Adam and Eve did in the Bible we are all born sinful and we are all predisposed to sin he would say that is an irrational super Superstition that has no scientific validity and no credibility whatsoever of course another weakness is that it depends on a literalist understanding of Genesis 3 and of course if you don't have that understanding you don't share the belief that that is literally true and that those events literally happened you aren't going to get on board with Augustine's original sin Theory another really important criticism is from science because of course Science Now shows that we evolved rather than Adam and Eve being the first created and remember evolutionary biology implies that we are headed towards Perfection over time not away from it so of course the fall is the idea that we were created perfect we were created Eternal there is then the fall and that shows the gap between it whereas actually evolutionary biology suggests it's the other way we started as very complex life in the sea and then we've evolved into something much more complex and you could argue that that is then more consistent with actually irenaeus and John hick and their soul making theodicy rather than Augustine's Soul deciding theodicy so Genesis 3 contradicts The evolutionary explanation for our Origins so many people would say that Evolution actually shows Adam and Eve were not the first human beings but actually we evolved over a long period of time I think one of the most robust criticisms is that this is unfair it's unfair to say that we are tainted by Adam and Eve eating fruit if I can put it like that it's especially fair to say that infant babies are therefore born sinful and with original sin so we can see that as a criticism building on that then we can say it creates a lot of guilt a lot of Shame and a lot of negativity for humans especially on sex ethics you could say it's a pessimistic understanding of human nature but also you know it it really creates a negative impression of sex and this whole idea of it being lustful and something we should feel guilty about and that it's through sex which many people see as an act of love that we are transmitting sin to our children and then we could also say that the idea God should wish to restore Human Nature by killing his own son on the cross is sedom masochistic and irrational I mean I love that criticism the idea that God decides the only way to save human beings from the sin of Adam and Eve eating a piece of fruit is that he's going to send his son to be killed on a cross and as I say that could be seen as sedom masochistic and irrational so if we then actually follow through to that idea of death through Adam life through Christ is that really how an all loving God would work does that not demonstrate and confirm Dawkins and pinker's point that this is irrational dangerous and based on superstitions so just something to think about again which of these do you think is the most robust criticism and weakness which one do you like the most which one would you be using in the exam in order to criticize Augustine um I personally really do like that final one um but let me know in the comments again which of these you think provides the most robust criticism and the most powerful challenge to Augustine so I just want to conclude with this quote from Stephen Pinker from his book The Better angels of our nature which is really interesting as a title because of course we started by looking at states of Nature and he said this and ideology can provide a satisfying narrative that explains chaotic events and Collective misfortunes in a way that flatters The Virtue and competence of Believers of theists while being vague or conspir enough to withstand skeptical scrutiny so if we think about Augustine's original sin as an ideology does it provide a satisfying narrative for our human nature but also if we think about evil and suffering for the state of the world today so not just human nature but nature in general and do we think that it does then flatter people who are Christian uh but also does not actually stand up and does not provide a really robust Theory so again just something to think about in terms of what Augustine has said about human nature and I want you to think does his original thin explanation explain not only human nature but also why things are the way they are in nature around us and that is quite a nice link isn't it to the problem of evil and suffering so thank you for joining me I do hope that's been helpful have a great day and good luck with your studies