Saint Augustine

Religious Studies: KS3, topic 1.3.20

Saint Augustine was one of the most important thinkers in early Christianity. He lived from 354-430.

Saint Augustine is sometimes called one of the Church Fathers. This shows how important his ideas were to Christianity.
He was a Bishop (a leader of the local Christian community) in part of North Africa.
He also worked in Rome when the Roman Empire was beginning to fall.

Saint Augustine's ideas were important for developing Christian ideas at his time.
Among his most important writings were his 'Confessions' and a work called 'The City of God'.
For Christians, the Roman Empire had often been a time of terrible persecution.
In the period when the Roman Empire began to lose power, there was a rise in immoral behaviour.
So, Augustine started to think about sin, and why human beings often seem drawn to evil behaviour.

To try to answer the question of why people sin, Augustine went back to the Book of Genesis.
Genesis contains the story of the Fall of Adam and Eve.
The story says they ate fruit from a forbidden tree, an act of disobedience against God.
For this, Adam and Eve were thrown out of paradise, the Garden of Eden.

Adam and Eve eating the forbidden fruit is the first sin. It was the first time human beings did something against God’s command.
It is often called Original Sin.
Augustine wondered why Adam and Eve disobeyed God when they had a perfect existence in paradise?
Augustine believed answering this question would teach us why human beings are sometimes drawn to sin.

Christians believe that God gave human beings free will, so they can choose how they behave.
Adam and Eve chose to do what they wanted, and eat the forbidden fruit.
Augustine said this was an act of pride and self-centredness. He said that all human beings have an urge to be selfish and do what they want, and so disobey God and sin.
Original Sin is not just an action, it is a condition (of pride and selfishness) inherited by all human beings.
So it is pride that separates human beings from God.

If all human beings have this condition of pride, then that applies even to babies.
It is only with God’s help that human beings can escape the consequences of their pride and sinfulness.
Augustine argued God's gift of love and forgiveness can overcome Original Sin.
Overcoming Original Sin requires believing in Jesus, and that he saved people from their sin.
The first step in showing this belief in Jesus is through Baptism.
Washing with water in Baptism is a symbol of washing away Original Sin.

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