Saint Augustine

When Saint Augustine discusses sin, he frequently reaches back to his own schooldays, and the problems he had with sin when he was a boy and young man. But in talking about sin, Saint Augustine must extend his research all the way back to Original Sin and the Fall.

Saint Augustine believed that Adam, before the Fall, possessed free will. He could have chosen not to sin. However, as Adam and Eve ate the apple, corruption entered into them and all of their descendants. Thus, all humankind is tainted with Original Sin, and free will cannot remove this stain. Only God's grace can save humanity from the eternal damnation of Adam's sin. But we are free to pursue good or evil as we desire.

If we love God and our fellow humans, we will select a virtuous way

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ind. In a sense, then, there is no such state as Original Sin. According to this, the idea of sin would be defensible even without theology. However, Saint Augustine's viewpoint concerning sin was mainly defensible only through theology. Saint Augustine was very much against the Pelagian approach because it did not include the doctrine of Original Sin, which was a component of Saint Augustine's theological system. When all was said and done, Saint Augustine came out of the argument as the victor, and Pelagius was considered by the Church as a heretic with a false doctrine. Saint Augustine affirms his faith in God: "All things of your making are beautiful; and, see, you who made all things are yourself inexpressibly more beautiful. If Adam had not fallen away from you, there would never have flowed from his loins the brackishness of that sea which is the human race . . . ." (Confessions 333). According to Pelagius, when children are born, they are in the condition of Adam before the Fall--they are innocent and without sin. But Saint Augustine's view was exactly the opposite. The immediate result of humankind's turning away from the highest good is the loss of this good. This loss is the fundamental punishment of huma
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Approximate Word count = 1475
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)

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