Saint Augustine of Hippo Conscience

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  • Created by: Jess0699
  • Created on: 06-12-16 10:26
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  • Saint Augustine of Hippo Conscience
    • Heavily influenced by Platonism
    • There is only one God
      • God was and is the source of all goodness
        • THUS there can only be one virtue
          • All supposed virtues (goodness and justice) just aspects of virtue - which is God
          • What binds the virtues to one virtue was divine love
    • Augustine believed:
      • When God's love and moral virtue revealed humans experience their own inadequacy
      • Imagine: playing a sport you love and are good at
        • Suddenly an international athlete joins game
          • Quickly realise what you thought was good is ordinary
            • Same after experiencing God
              • God's love and virtue is perfect
                • Any divine experience will reveal inadequacies of being human
                • Show our inability to do anything about it
      • “Men see the moral rules written in a book of light which is called Truth from which all laws are copied.”
    • Profound effect on later medieval writers
      • 1. Make the conscience the most important element of moral decision making
        • Followers of Augustine argued -the conscience is more important than moral teachings of the Church
        • Luther started life as Augustinian monk
          • Broke with the Roman C Church
            • Arguing that his conscience wouldn't allow him to accept the teachings of the pope
      • Other writers have placed the conscience love the teachings of the bIble
      • Late 18th and 19th century Christians wrestled issue of slavery
        • St. Paul his letter to Philemon supported the institution of slavery
        • William Wilberforce struggled with this message - as he believed in the authority of Scripture
    • Christians today
      • Desmond Tutu - wrestled between their conscience and biblical condemnations of gay acts

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