Theology of Saint Augustine

Augustine agreed with Pelagius that emancipation is the original, tout ensemble(prenominal)-important(a) quality of man, so that Adam was free when he deplorable. Originally, man's freedom was directed toward the unspoiled, and the good is the love with which God loves himself. In this sense impression everybody is free. But this freedom is dangerous, so dangerous that man could variety his direction toward God and direct himself instead toward particular things in time and space. Augustine saw that the danger of freedom was so enceinte that he created the famous doctrine of adjutorium gratiae, the helping power of grace, which was condition to Adam onward he fell . . . This adjutorium gratiae, this assisting power of grace, implied indirectly that nature in itself can non be good; it must be fulfilled by supernature . . ." (Tillich 125).

A considerable amount of Augustine's holiness was generated as a result of dealing with the Pelagian controversy. Bertrand Russell states: "Saint Augustine taught that Adam, before the Fall had free will, and could have abstained from sin. But as he and Eve ate the apple, corruption entered into them, and descended to all their posterity, none of whom can, of their stimulate power, abstain from sin. Only God's grace enables men to be virtuous. Since we all inherit Adam's sin, we all deserve eternal damnation. All who check unbaptized, even infants, will go to hell and suffer everlasting(a) torme

Good works on the part of a person would not have each influence on his salvation, according to Augustine's doctrine. We can only search on God's infinite mercy for the saving of our souls. Interestingly enough, the belief in predestination was adopted by sewer Calvin, the Protestant reformer.

Augustine refers to God and the problem of good versus evil in his Confessions: "So we must conclude that if things be deprived of all good, they polish off altogether to be; and this means that as long as they are, they are good. Therefore, whatever is, is good; and evil, the origin of which I was act to find, is not a substance, because if it were a substance, it would be good . . .

So it became obvious to me that all that you have made is good, and that there are no substances whatever that were not made by you. And because you did not make them all equal, each single thing is good and collectively they are very good, for our God made his solely creation very good" (Augustine 148).

This presents a very decreed view of the universe and all of God's creation. Thus, the first man fell from God's grace because of his own choice in the matter. If it were not for God's grace, all of humanity would be doomed, and salvation would be completely impossible. However, light beam Brown says this about Augustine and the freedom of the will to choose: "Freedom,

Russell, Bertrand. A History of Western Philosophy. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1945.

There are umpteen paradoxes in the thought of Augustine. Although God is already present at heart us, He is also infinitely

Brown, Peter. Augustine of Hippo. Los Angeles: U of California P, 1967.

It has already been mentioned that John Calvin was very strongly influenced by the concept of predestination.

it is a freedom to act fully. Such freedom must involve the favorable position of a sense of choice. For a sense of choice is a symptom of the disintegration of the will: the final union of companionship and feeling would
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