Ask Me Help Desk - Later in life did St.Augustine believe Adam disobeying GOD lost man's his freewill?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rebel1st

Towards the end of his life ,St. Augustine said that 'original sin' overcame man's freewill and man lost his freewill when Adam disobeyed GOD . Therefore St. Augustine joined Calvin and Martin Luther in denying that man had freewill and that his will was bound by GOD's WILL . In other words predestination. I will agree in his confessions he sided with the Church idea of 'freewill of man' but remember Galileo agreed that the earth did not revolve around the sun under pressure from the Church ,even both knew it did.

Hi Rebel,

If you are putting forward the thesis that St. Augustine was somehow under duress to deny man had free will then I would be most interested in your sources.

St. Augustine's "City of God" seems to be defense of the church in the face of the sacking of Rome in about 400.At least in spiritual terms.

From what I have read it seems to be that St. Augustine spent much of his time trying to reconcile free will and predestination. I don't think his position changed, even in later life. Again, I would be interested in why would think this is not the case.

I agree that St. Augustine did think original sin impacted greatly on our capacity to be a moral agent. He also thinks that our base instincts tend to override our capacity to do right over wrong and this accounts for his explanation of original sin. St. Augustine did more than any other Christian philosopher to develop the concept of original sin.

I also have a problem with the idea that we have free will under the condition that it is bounded by God's will. I don't see how this fits into any accepted version of predestination.

Regards

Tut