According
to Saint Augustine, God created everything. As he puts it, “nothing that exists
could exist without you” (22). In order to communicate the breadth of this conception,
Augustine unifies opposites, pairing various contradictory qualities and
juxtaposing concrete imagery with abstract imagery. This incongruity, though
perhaps mind-boggling, expresses the all-encompassing nature that enables God
to “fill all things” (23). Moreover, it provides a basis for the biggest
contradiction of all: that although God created everything, God did not create
sin.
From
the start, Augustine establishes God’s character as multidimensional. He
explains that “you are active, yet always at rest,” that “you can be angry and
yet serene,” and that “you are the most hidden from us and yet the most present
amongst us” (23). Buttressing these initial statements is Augustine’s continual
use of contrasting types of imagery. Again and again, depictions of physical
phenomena come into play with depictions of wholly immaterial ideas, a practice
encapsulated in the assertion that God is the “Lord of heaven and earth” (26).
Through this proclamation, Augustine directly links God with both the spiritual
and the material realms. Likewise, he later connects lactation to God’s
abundance and describes God as “pruning back…thorns” (or sins) with “a gentle
hand” (25, 44). In both cases, Augustine interprets God as using the physical
world to orchestrate spiritual truth. Unions such as these communicate God’s pervasive
and wide-ranging essence.
With
this established, Augustine may now safely conclude that “…all things find in
you their origin, their impulse, the centre of their being” (22). Nevertheless,
he contradicts this by claiming that there is one thing that did not originate
with God, which is sin. Rather, sin is a purely human construct, even though
God is responsible for human impulse. As Augustine puts it, “[although] you
made man…you did not make sin in him” (27). Here, he seems to defy his earlier
statement regarding the origin of impulse. However, by establishing God’s nature as essentially varied, he has set a precedent for such incongruity. What is outwardly an inconsistent
report can actually be explained through the character that Augustine has set
up. God may be connected to everything, but he is also separate from something.
Emily poses an interesting point in saying that God has seemingly created all things, except sin. I too find this to be an interesting point, considering that it is man who sins, and God created man. This almost contradictory notion is explained through the idea that God creates human impulse, but it is the human who uses that impulse to create sin. When I read this, I felt that this was Augustine's way of absolving God from any responsibility in the imperfection of the human race.
ReplyDeleteIn relating the origin of human sin to the Qur'an, it wasn't god who created it, but rather Iblis as he swore to impede the human race. I like Emily's quote: "sin is a purely human construct, even though God is responsible for human impulse," because it seems especially contradictory juxtaposed alongside his mother's teachings that were the word of god, that came from god. An example is when his mother says "'Where you are, he is,'" and he says that answer god "gave [him] through [his] mother" (68-69). In Confessions, the god can directly command what one says as a guiding lesson, so possibly this god grants the ability to sin as a source of lessons, guiding one on the right path.
ReplyDeleteI'd like to further comment on what both Lauren and Emily pointed out- that Augustine seems to contradict himself when dealing with the idea of sin. Augustine, on page 40 says that "the God who made me must be good and all the good in me is his." Here Augustine is admitting that not everything about him was directly made from God, but anything that's good about him was made by God.
ReplyDeleteI do agree with Emily that Augustine places these incongruities of God to reason that sin originates from humans. Also, I agree with Lauren's point on that this absolved God from the responsibilities of the sins of humans. Augustine states that "Your punishments are for the sins which men commit against themselves, because although they sin against you, they do wrong to their own souls and their malice is self-betrayed. They corrupt and pervert their own nature, which you made and for which you shaped the rules..." (66). Augustine acknowledges that even the consequences of committing sins are caused by humans. Humans bring about those consequences because they acted against their purpose that God has made for them. Emily points out the many contradictory things that describe God. Augustine uses those things to describe that since God is in everything, but also separate, he is not part of the human creation of sin. Thus, God does not become harmed by the sins or its consequences, but humans do, since they chose to act and oppose their given purpose.
ReplyDeleteAnother possible interpretation of the incongruity of God not having created everything yet not sin is that sin is simply the absence of virtue, just as "Evil is nothing but the removal of good"(63). In this sense, God has created a correct path, but humans create evil and sin by straying from it. This shifts the blame from God, while still allowing him to have created all the good in the universe.
ReplyDeleteI would disagree with Emily's argument that there is a contradiction within Augustine's argument. As Emily, Lauren and Liezel hint at in their posts, sin originates with humans. God made creation, including humans, and embodies many transcendent ideals such as Love and Truth, but humans are ultimately responsible for sin and it is of their own creation. It is for this reason that God causes "the free flow of curiosity to be stemmed by force. From the schoolmaster's cane to the ordeals of martyrdom, your law prescribes bitter medicine to retrieve us from the noxious pleasures which cause us to desert you" (35). Human curiosity is the source of sin, as it creates independently from what already exists (God's creation), and while God tolerates it at times at other times he brings justice down on those who practice it.
ReplyDelete