St. Augustine on The Fall of Man and God’s Grace

© by Jensen DG. Mañebog/MyInfoBasket.com

Augustine contends that the first evils in creation are evil acts of free will or the so-called sins. Made as rational beings with free choice by God, some angels and the first human beings, Adam and Eve, turned away from their very Creator. The first humans’ disobedience to God in the Garden of Eden results in what is called ‘the fall of man’. ‘The fall’ is thus the transition from being an innocent image of God to being a creature with corrupted or fallen human nature.

Moral evil is viewed as the privation of right order in one’s will, in the same way darkness is the absence of light in a place. When the will abuses its freedom and willingly defects from supreme goodness, it is deprived of right order, measure, and form it ought to possess. In ‘the fall,’ Adam and Eve abused their freedom by loving themselves and their own good as if it were the highest good. In doing so, they acted inordinately, favoring lesser goods to the greater goods.

Evil, then, is moving away from God through a misdirected love of something that isn’t God. Moral evils, or sins, are based on a mistaken conception of what is good for us. Sinful acts, like what the first humans did, are unbecoming and improper, and hence corruptions of man’s original nature.

This fallen nature is a state from which people cannot attain genuine happiness, let alone salvation or eternal life. And even if man attempts to pursue that which is really good, he cannot be successful because of his fallen nature. Sin can be avoided, Augustine believes, if our corrupted nature be healed by God’s grace. By one’s own strength alone, without God’s gracious intervention, it is impossible for one to become righteous.

Without taking away one’s freedom, God’s grace fortifies man’s will to do good and pulls it to its real purpose by offering delight as motivation. Only God’s grace can free our will from the domination of sin, thereby even perfecting human liberty. Genuine liberty is free choice used to good purpose, whereas bogus liberty is its bad utilization. Moved by God’s liberating grace, free will exercises authentic liberty in fulfilling God’s laws.

Augustine believes that basic moral norms such as “Subordinate the inferior to the superior,” and “Give everyone his due”, are more or less common to all people. Through the moral guidance of our gracious God reflected in our conscience, we can apply these moral laws in our actions. Furthermore, the illumination of the divine virtues plays a role here. As God lights up our mind by truth, He illumines our will by virtue … continue reading

© 2013-present by Jensen DG. Mañebog/MyInfoBasket.com

Read: ANALYSIS OF AUGUSTINE’S ETHICS

Also Check Out: From Socrates to Mill: An Analysis of Prominent Ethical Theories, also by author Jensen DG. Mañebog