human nature

• Augustine

  Believed that God made the world perfect and humans caused evil to come about through their freewill
• The Fall


  1. Adam and Eve's transition from friendship and innocence to lust & selfishness

  2. Described in Genesis 3
• Before the Fall, there was harmony in the world
• Harmony before the Fall


  • Between God and humankind
  • Humans and each other
  • Humans and creation
  • The body and the will of humans
• Harmony before the Fall


  • Complete obedience of Adam and Eve
  • Fulfilment of their God-given duties in the world (e.g. naming the animals, tilling and keeping the garden)
• Caritas


  Selfless, outward, generous love - the kind of love found in the world before the Fall
• Caritas love was seen best in the relationship between Adam and Eve
• Concordia


  The relationship of Adam and Eve - comfortable, easy and understanding
• After the Fall, there is lust and selfish desires
• Cupiditas


  Selfish, inward love of temporary, earthly things - replaces Caritas after the Fall
• Eve & the Fall


  1. Eve resists the serpent's temptation by reminding him of God's command

  2. Eve's focus changes when she sees the fruit is 'a delight to the eyes' - cupiditas takes over caritas
• Consequence of the Fall


  • Breaking of the harmony which God had created
  • Adam and Eve hide from God
  • Adam and Eve try to pass the blame
  • Enmity between humans and creation
• The friendship of Adam and Eve is damaged after the Fall, now characterised by jealousy and pain
• Concupiscence


  Lust for the material and the earthly, no longer under the command of the will (contrasts the situation before the Fall)
• St. Augustine: 'Lust requires for its consummation darkness and secrecy… even when he innocently copulates with his wife'