1

Augustine, Saint
Jesse Couenhoven

Especially for those who read only his Confessions, it can be tempting to think of
Saint Augustine (354–430) as modern. He too is obsessed with sex, many readers
conclude; he too broods over his inner psychological complexities, questioning his
place in the world; even worrying about worrying. If he is like us, it is in ways that
we are like him: our culture still bears traces of Augustine’s patrimony. At the same
time, Augustine – one of the four great theological “Doctors” of the medieval
Church, whose authority was treated by Thomas Aquinas as second only to scripture,
and whose writings inspired Protestant teaching on original sin, predestination, and
salvation by grace alone – is often misunderstood (see aquinas, saint thomas;
calvin, john; luther, martin; sin, concepts of). His views have more often
been attacked than defended in the past two centuries, and if we are to regain any
genuine sympathy for them, we must take a fresh look.

A Brief Biography
Aurelius Augustine was born into a Berber family in Thagaste (Souk Ahras in
present-day Algeria), in Roman North Africa. His reputation grew to international pro-
portions within his own lifetime, but most of his life was lived little more than 60 miles
from where he grew up. As a student he was inspired by Cicero, and though he read
little Aristotle (many of whose works were lost), Plato was in the air educated people of
his day breathed (see plato; stoicism). Augustine was very well educated, even spend-
ing four years in Rome and then Milan (the empire’s capital) studying, teaching, and
advancing the career his parents were ambitious for him to have. All along, however, he
was restless, dissatisfied with his accomplishments and with himself.
For about a decade before he went to Rome he dabbled in Manichaeism, which
seemed to share Cicero’s Stoic ambition of attaining wisdom through moral striving.
Mani taught that the world was the battleground of two equal powers. Human
beings are called to take the side of the kingdom of light, resisting the corruption of
their souls by material things. Asceticism, motivated by the dualist conviction that
the loss of material things is not worth mourning, was the way to purity of heart
because resisting the allure of things that cannot last frees one’s essence, the
immaterial soul. In a way, one already is who one ought to become, because the soul
is pure; yet because soul is trapped in body, it needs to be freed – which seemed to
explain the struggle Augustine encountered in himself.
Manichaeism’s peculiar practices for achieving wisdom came to seem foolish to
Augustine. He did not convert to Catholicism, however, until he learned from

The International Encyclopedia of Ethics. Edited by Hugh LaFollette, print pages 399–407.
© 2013 Blackwell Publishing Ltd. Published 2013 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
DOI: 10.1002/ 9781444367072.wbiee718
2

Milan’s bishop, Ambrose, to read scripture as a Platonist, in terms of its typological

meaning. Then, inspired by the example of heroic Christians who had bested the
Stoics at their own game of sacrifice in the service of virtue, Augustine abandoned
worldly ambition, turning from his common-law wife, sex, and his promising career
in rhetoric (see virtue). At the age of 33, he began a new life of contemplation in
Christian community.
This new life did not lack connections to the old: he was joined by old friends,
including his teenage son Adeodatus, and his mother Monnica, who had followed
him to Rome to encourage his secular and spiritual progress. Yet it was a time of
transition, in which both Adeodatus and Monnica passed away. Between his
conversion in 386 and his unexpected ordination as a priest in 391 he wrote his
best-known “philosophical” works, among them On the Teacher, The Soliloquies,
and the first part of On Free Choice of the Will (see free will). The relationship
between these early dialogical works and Augustine’s later writings is complex and
endlessly debated, but their twists and turns suggest they are experimental. Augustine
had been converted, in part, to Platonism; his dialogues explore the implications
and limits of this heritage. They often develop lines of thought as much to raise
questions about them as to defend them. During this period Augustine’s concerns
about the limits of human understanding and the corruption of human hearts led
him to focus more and more on scripture, and eventually to challenge the Stoic and
neo-Platonic conceptions of virtuous living common in his day. Thus, if he had not
begun to articulate the distinctive views for which he later became famous, he had
begun opening a way toward them.
Augustine articulated the core of his mature views in a work written in 396, as he
was about to become a bishop in the African port town of Hippo. His Miscellany of
Questions in Response to Simplician challenged the moralism of the philosophies of
his day by emphasizing the priority of divine grace. As in all his later works, this
emphasis combines theological and psychological convictions: to be saved is to be
made anew in Christ, precisely because salvation involves the transformation of
one’s delights and concerns. Sinners are unable to become virtuous because they are
unable to reset their loves – they live out of them, and can only get a grip on what
they love if God gets a grip on them by making Christ’s love their own. This is the
fundamental orientation that fueled Augustine’s later debates: it took him over
20 years to work through its implications, and he was led in directions that he
sometimes tried to resist, but his perspective exhibited a fundamental consistency
from this point on.
The Manicheans’ central mistake was not the idiosyncrasy of their astrological
beliefs or dining habits but, Augustine came to believe, their affirmation that a select
few can work their way to virtue and achieve salvation apart from Christ. He would
discern the same basic error in his later opponents: the pagans assailed in his City of
God were, especially, Stoics who celebrated their own heroic virtue. The Donatists,
an African Catholic sect Augustine opposed early in his bishopric, made the mistake
of trying to add to Christ’s work, because for them the power of the sacraments
depended on the purity of the priests who administer them. Finally, the Pelagians
 3

were a loosely affiliated group of spiritual elitists for whom salvation depended on
one’s own moral achievements, and who claimed to be able to save themselves
without needing Christ for more than the example he provided.

Augustine’s Worldview
Augustine’s thought is typically considered eudaemonist, but his relationship to
eudaimonism is complex (Herdt 2008; Wetzel 1992; Wolterstorff 2008: Ch. 8; see
eudaimonism). He supported the ancient consensus that our ultimate end is hap-
piness. Indeed, he believed that we are so constructed that free choices necessarily
aim at happiness (Unfinished Work VI.11). The happiness he had in mind is not
subjective but objective, not merely a state of mind but a way of being what God
made and calls his creatures to be. Thus, humanity is made for the good, by the
good. A Plotinian metaphor Augustine used for God in On True Religion is that of
a fountain of goodness, from which everything else that exists flows. In creating,
God made an artistic display of many kinds of goodness, a chain of beings created
good in their own ways.
So far, Augustine was mainstream. He departed from many of his peers, however,
in having become convinced, especially by the bodily incarnation of Jesus Christ,
that material things are both good in themselves and essential to a genuinely happy
human existence. The human good life is unusual, since humans are both the high-
est material creatures and the lowest of the spiritual ones – the only composite
creatures, featuring embodied souls. To live a happy life, then, personal virtue is not
enough; we are dependent creatures, with material and relational needs we cannot
fulfill on our own. For Augustine it is a mark of how unhappy this fallen world is that
we must constantly worry whether those needs will be met.
Even so, Augustine does not want us to be distracted from the fact that our
deepest need is to love well (which he equates with being virtuous). Augustine
understood loving well as being attracted to, attached to, or bestowing goods
ordinately – the sinners’ problem is less what they love (for all that is, is good and
thus worthy of love), or how much (created persons have unlimited worth), than
how they love. To love ordinately, Augustine believed, is to enjoy God but “use”
created things (Retractions II.15.2) – by which he meant that we should refer all
things to God, loving them for God’s sake and in their relationship to God (Gregory
2010: Ch. 6). Only thus can created things be for us what they are. As penultimate
goods they cannot fulfill us lastingly; as ectypes of the good they point toward the
perfection we are to enjoy. If we love created things in loving God – if we love them
because and as God loves them – we can desire and take pleasure in those things
too, without harming ourselves or them. We can also, Augustine came to think,
mourn their loss without fearing that in doing so we are loving inordinately.
Christ’s own behavior was Augustine’s model, since Jesus wept at the death of his
friend Lazarus (City of God XIV.9). In spite of the infelicity of the term, then,
“using” goods other than God is far from a utilitarian relationship; it encompasses
compassion and genuine regard.
4

While Augustine’s attempts to broaden the ancient world’s conception of the

goods relevant to felicity make him more attractive to us, his most enduringly
controversial challenges to the eudaimonism of his day arose as he considered how
happiness should be pursued in a fallen world. In fact, Augustine was not convinced
that seeking felicity in this life should be our goal. To be sure, no one should seek
evil, but Augustine saw a third possibility: Christians should seek to live in a manner
becoming to those who are saved by grace and incorporated into a relationship with
God and one another in Christ, without concerning themselves over whether virtue
will be connected to happiness. Concern for one’s own happiness is not illegitimate,
so long as one is focused on being and doing good, and Augustine endorsed self-love
of that enlightened sort. Still, there are elements in Augustine’s mature thought that
marginalized the pursuit of happiness.
City of God portrays Christian living in ways that suggest that it is good to live
faithfully in a fallen world even if doing so is not always good for one (in the sense
that it conduces to one’s happiness). Virtue and happiness are not properly
ordered to one another in this life – a point Augustine learned not only from the
martyrs but from infants, many of whom suffer more than adults whose sin is
clearly greater.
Augustine was able to recognize these incongruities because of his broad
conception of the goods necessary for genuine happiness. Unlike the Stoics, he was
unwilling to call martyrs happy, even if they are admirable. Moreover, Augustine
came to believe that Christians are called to share in one another’s joys and sorrows,
as Christ shares in theirs, because they are joined together in Christ as one body.
Thus, even those whose lives are relatively blessed cannot be happy while others in
their community suffer. Heaven is a place where felicity is shared.
Correlated with these themes of tragedy and collectivity is Augustine’s doctrine of
grace. Having abandoned the aspiration of becoming pure in the heroic sense central
to Roman mythology, he criticized the ambitions of the “sages” as foolish and proud.
His conception of this-worldly virtue, by contrast, valorized humble persons who
endlessly wage war against vice and expect to be transformed by the renewing of
their minds (City of God XIX.4). The tragedy of our present existence will be
overcome not by our own efforts to ascend to a better life but in dependence on
Christ, who will bring us into his kingdom where all will be made right. Concern for
oneself is not therefore illegitimate; it is, however, reframed by the idea that we are
not to seek our own happiness, which we will receive as a gift. Our task is to live
patiently, in faith and hope.
The psychological implications of this doctrine of grace are worth developing
further, given their centrality especially to Augustine’s anti-Pelagian works.
Augustine’s belief that only God can save us developed concurrently with his assess-
ment that human agency is limited in significant ways. This conception of human
agency is most readily apparent in Augustine’s doctrine of original sin, according to
which all of humanity is trapped by ignorance and weakness. Human beings share a
corporate corruption in Adam that parallels redemptive membership in Christ’s
body (see collective responsibility). However, as his consistently corporate
 5

conception of humanity itself suggests, Augustine’s conception of the limits of

human agency was not simply a feature of his doctrine of original sin. His moral
psychology conceived of even sinless human beings as motivated by their loves and
desires in ways that they do not fully control. Augustine certainly believed that
Adam had greater control over himself than his fallen progeny, but it is a mistake to
think that the sinners’ problem lies chiefly in the fact that their choices are not up to
them. This can be inferred from the fact that grace, as Augustine understood it, does
not offer fallen humanity a new power of autonomous self-determination; rather, it
reorients their loves and thus their lives.
Sexuality is a significant theme in this context not because it was the sinful act that
most concerned Augustine, or because he was a sex addict – an oddly widespread
conception of a man who reported having two sexual partners in his lifetime, one of
whom he essentially married – but because he felt that male sexuality illustrated
especially poignantly the disordered state of human nature. Men are roused when
they do not want to be, unable to be animated when they want to be, and distracted
by passing pleasures from what is best for them. Sexuality is, in fact, just one aspect
of the general theme of appetite, which plays a central role in Augustine’s rhetorical
play on the irony of the fact that those who are not ordered to God lack order even
within themselves.
Humans are made to hunger for good things, but sinners find themselves unsettled
in all their appetites. Augustine noted the involuntarily salivation that can occur
when the smell of food reaches one who is fasting. The problem is not that if she
were unfallen she would be able to decide when to salivate, as if Eve were hungry
only when she chose to be – that would be inhuman in its failure to give the body its
due. What Augustine sought was not conscious, rational control over all his activi-
ties; in rejecting the glorious vices of pagans and heretics he took himself to have
rejected just such aspirations. Rather, he sought to be ordered properly in relation-
ship to himself, especially in his loves. This does not mean that Augustine valued
affect over reason: he thought of a happy existence as one that is ordinate, and in that
normative sense rational, in its mutually interpenetrating affections, desires, and
beliefs. To be as one should be, one would not desire to eat what is unhealthy, and
one’s bodily members would be in agreement. The sinners’ problem, then, is not so
much a lack of control as a fractured existence that cannot fulfill itself. The solution
is captivity to Christ.
Associated with this line of thought is Augustine’s notion that freedom is not to be
found in independence but in proper relationship. As hungering creatures, humanity is
necessarily, as it was made to be, dependent. Moreover, much as we are what we eat, any
human being is marked by that on which she or he depends. To be free, then, is less a
question of having options than of the ability to actualize one’s existence rightly. Freedom
is dependence on what truly fulfills, because what fulfills allows one to be whole, not at
odds with oneself. The saints in heaven, Augustine insisted, are freed by grace, but not
in such a way that they could sin but do not; rather, their hearts and minds are so wise
and oriented to the good that they, like the God into whose divine life they are incorpo-
rated, are unable either to sin or to want to sin. The freedom Augustine called libertas,
6

therefore, has a normative dimension; to have genuine liberty is to be successfully

ordered to the good. Only the just, he argued, are really free (Sermon 158).
The converse of this belief is Augustine’s reluctance to call sinners free. They are
unfree not because they are unable to choose what they want, but because their loves
are so corrupted and fragmented that they lack the agency necessary to arrive at hap-
piness or virtue. Sinners cannot possibly have what they want – not only are they too
ignorant to see what is good for them, and too weak to pursue the goods they do
know; they are too divided in their loves to ever be content. This lack of freedom
does not mean that sinners lack agency, however – they live out of their own loves
and actions (see responsibility). Nor does grace remove human agency, Augustine
argued: God’s justice cannot be in one unwillingly. Acting on the basis of one’s own
desires, then, was Augustine’s basis for rewards or punishments (McFadyen 2001).
Some in Augustine’s own day found these ideas disquieting, but Augustine did
not find his view demeaning or harsh: it recognized the plight of sinners and, via his
doctrine of grace, offered a way out to which any person can cling. By contrast, his
Donatist, Pelagian, and pagan opponents despised the masses, offering salvation
only to a spiritual elite, those who achieve purity in this life. Though Augustine was
not entirely sure why God permits the creation to fall (perhaps God finds more
beautiful the love that mingles with grief in order to overcome it?) he considered
God gracious for saving many who do not deserve it. The question with which his
readers still struggle is whether it is fair to say that those who cannot help but sin,
and have not been predestined for salvation, deserve to be eternally punished.
Augustine’s emphasis on human sociality, and his sense that we owe one another
concern for each other’s physical and spiritual well-being, replaced his early zest for
monastic retreat with a sense that social engagement is a Christian duty, albeit often
an onerous one – as he often found in the local courts in which he, as bishop, was
expected to judge. When Augustine applied his moral psychology and doctrine of
grace to politics, the results were somewhat ambiguous. It was characteristic for him
not to expect much of governing authorities, even those in the Church; after all, he
was confident that they are corrupt and blind in many ways. Thus, he has been taken
by many modern readers to be a proponent of limited government.
At the same time, his awareness of the limits of individual goodness inclined him
to think that careful direction should be provided when possible, both to incentiv-
ize good beliefs and behavior, and to discourage the bad. He did not take his views
to discourage moral effort, but to locate it within a proper understanding of human-
ity’s struggle against the “flesh” – a Pauline metaphor not for our bodies but our
sinful tendencies (Sermon 154A). And while complete virtue seemed unattainable
in this life, Augustine did find it worthwhile not only for individuals to strive for
whatever fragments of the virtues God might help them attain but for collective
entities to assist the efforts of their brothers and sisters. He did not always require
assent to such assistance, and his infamous decision to compel the Donatists to join
in worship with their Catholic brethren (Letter 173) was not entirely out of charac-
ter. He may not have hoped the state can do much more than restrain sin, but that
turned out to be a substantial moral and spiritual task. Consider, for instance, the
 7

restraints Augustine placed on waging war in an attempt to make it more an act

of  justice than an expression of revenge or selfish utility (see just war theory,
history of), his desire for temporal punishment to serve the good of the wrong-
doer (hence his dislike for the death penalty), and his concern that power of all
sorts, including wealth, be used not for self-aggrandizement but ordered in love
(hence his opposition to slavery). Even as the mere caretakers of a broken peace,
institutions such as the Church and the state play important roles in shaping
actions,  beliefs, and loves, and Augustine expected them to act paternalistically,
albeit with limited ambitions, to direct their people out of the desert and toward
that better country they seek.
Modern readers may prefer the Augustine who famously exhorted his congrega-
tion to “love, and do what you want” (Homilies on the First Epistle of John, VII.8).
Yet the love he had in mind is of quite a particular sort, because the happy drink
from the fountain of life. Thus, as is rarely mentioned, Augustine illustrated the
winsome precept just quoted with a reminder that parental punishment can be an
act of love, while caresses can violate (he had child abuse in mind). The love that is
of the triune God is not whatever one might want; it liberates via ties that bind
because it seeks and gives the good. In relation to sinners, this love means exhorta-
tion: true love of the sick aims to make them whole. But Augustine offered no
theoretical resolution to the resulting questions about how, and how hard, to push
oneself or others. He gave no formula for even partial growth in virtue other than
the balancing act he himself sought to practice:

we have to pray that we may be able to fulfill [what we are commanded]; but not in such
a way that we let ourselves go, and like sick people lie flat on our backs and say, “May
God rain down food on our faces,” and we ourselves wish to do absolutely nothing about
it; and when food has been rained down into our mouths we say, “May God also swallow
it for us.” We too have … got to be keen, we’ve got to try hard, and to give thanks insofar
as we have been successful, to pray insofar as we have not. (Sermon 348A)

Augustine and Ethics

Augustine was almost always doing ethics; his most basic questions concerned the
nature of the good, and how to seek it. Yet he was not an ethicist, insofar as that is
construed as an autonomous inquiry. In asking what the good is, how it relates to us,
and how we should relate to it, Augustine’s thought was at once metaphysical, theo-
logical, psychological, ontological – and, given his reliance on scripture, exegetical.
Augustine’s democratic suggestion that the good life is equally available to all, his
emphasis on love, his sense that history matters to morality, his restless search for a
better life, his resistance to moralism, his aspiration for freedom, his affirmation of
the material, and his struggle to plumb human psychology are recognizable to us; we
are indebted to them. In developing these themes, Augustine not only summed up
the ancient world but inaugurated crucial themes in medieval and reformation
8

thought. These themes are misunderstood, however, unless we see the ways in which
Augustine’s attack on ancient ethics was rooted in his theological conviction that
everything is changed in and because of God’s grace in Christ. Because of that focus,
Augustine was in some ways an anti-ethicist. For him, the good life is not something
we can achieve, but a correlate of the love we are to receive.

See also: aquinas, saint thomas; calvin, john; collective responsibility;

eudaimonism; free will; just war theory, history of; love; luther, martin;
plato; responsibility; sin, concepts of; stoicism; virtue

REFERENCES
Augustine, St. 1995. Sermons 341–400, in John E. Rotelle, OSA (ed.), The Works of Saint
Augustine III/10, trans. Edmund Hill, OP. Hyde Park, NY: New City Press.
Augustine, St. 1998. The City of God Against the Pagans, trans. R. W. Dyson. New York:
Cambridge University Press.
Augustine, St. 1999a. Retractions, trans. Sister M. Inez Bogan, RSM. Washington, DC:
Catholic University of America Press.
Augustine, St. 1999b. Unfinished Work in Answer to Julian, ed. John E. Rotelle, OSA, trans.
Roland J. Teske, SJ. Hyde Park, NY: New City Press.
Augustine, St. 2001. Letters 156–210, in John E. Rotelle, OSA (ed.), The Works of Saint
Augustine II/1, trans. Roland J. Teske, SJ. Hyde Park, NY: New City Press.
Augustine, St. 2008. Homilies on the First Letter of John, ed. and trans. Boniface Ramsey. Hyde
Park, NY: New City Press.
Augustine, St. 2011. “Miscellany of Questions in Response to Simplician,” in Boniface Ramsey
(ed.), Selected Writings on Grace and Pelagianism. Hyde Park, NY: New City Press, pp. 33–73.
Gregory, Eric 2010. Politics and the Order of Love: An Augustinian Ethic of Democratic
Citizenship. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Herdt, Jennifer A. 2008. Putting on Virtue: The Legacy of the Splendid Vices. Chicago:
University of Chicago Press.
McFadyen, Alistair I. 2001. Bound to Sin: Abuse, Holocaust and the Christian Doctrine of Sin.
New York: Cambridge University Press.
Wetzel, James 1992. Augustine and the Limits of Virtue. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Wolterstorff, Nicholas 2008. Justice: Rights and Wrongs. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

FURTHER READINGS
Brown, Peter 1969. Augustine of Hippo: A Biography. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Burnell, Peter 2005. The Augustinian Person. Washington, DC: Catholic University of
America Press.
Dodaro, Robert 2004. Christ and the Just Society in the Thought of Augustine. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Fitzgerald, Allan D. (ed.) 1999. Augustine Through the Ages. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans.
Harrison, Carol 2000. Christian Truth and Fractured Humanity, ed. Timothy Gorringe and
Graham Ward. New York: Oxford University Press.
 9

Rist, John M. 1994. Augustine: Ancient Thought Baptized. New York: Cambridge University
Press.
Stump, Eleonore, and Norman Kretzman (ed.) 2001. The Cambridge Companion to Augustine.
New York: Cambridge University Press.
TeSelle, Eugene 1970. Augustine the Theologian. New York: Herder & Herder.
Wills, Gary 1999. Saint Augustine: A Life. New York: Viking Penguin.
 University of San Agustin
General Luna St., 5000 Iloilo City, Philippines
www.usa.edu.ph

CENTER FOR RELIGIOUS STUDIES

MODULE 1: GENERAL INTRODUCTION: SAINT AUGUSTINE ON

ETHICS

MODULE 1: OPENING PRAYER

INSTRUCTION: IF YOU ARE READY, YOU CAN NOW START WITH MODULE 1.

Opening Prayer: As we start with this lesson, I invite you

to pray the Official Prayer before class.

Leader: When we live in unity,

All: How good and how pleasant it is.
Leader: Pray for us, Holy Father Augustine,
All: That we may dwell together in peace.
Leader: Let us pray,
All: God our Father, Your Son promised to be
present in the midst of all who come together in
His name. Help us to recognize His presence
among us and experience in our hearts the
abundance of Your grace, Your mercy, and
Your peace, in truth and in love. We ask this,
through Christ our Lord. Amen.

2022-2023 Module Packet for ASF 3 (ST. AUGUSTINE ON ETHICS). Center for Religious SR. JEAN ALCAIN, LMSH 07/27/2022
Studies, University of San Agustin, Iloilo City, Philippines. DR. REYNOLD B. NAVARES

Email: [email protected] | Tel. No.: 0999-997-1485 | Fax No.: (033) 337-4403

 University of San Agustin
General Luna St., 5000 Iloilo City, Philippines
www.usa.edu.ph

CENTER FOR RELIGIOUS STUDIES

A GRACE-FILLED DAY! WELCOME TO MODULE 1.

This module covers the general introduction to Saint Augustine on

Ethics. This covers the course orientation and basic introductory
ethical thoughts of Saint Augustine, its philosophical and scriptural
background, and foundations, and also the principles, and sources of
Christian ethics. These will help you understand, identify, and apply
moral principles in your choices in life towards your final goal who is
God.

Consultation hours:
Phone/messenger:
Virtual time:

MODULE 1: LEARNING OBJECTIVES

By the end of Module 1, students will be able to:

1. manifest understanding of the teachings of Saint Augustine on

Ethics;
2. show deeper appreciation of ethical thoughts, philosophy, and
teachings of Saint Augustine;
3. adhere to the Augustinian ethical principles.

2022-2023 Module Packet for ASF 3 (ST. AUGUSTINE ON ETHICS). Center for Religious SR. JEAN ALCAIN, LMSH 07/27/2022
Studies, University of San Agustin, Iloilo City, Philippines. DR. REYNOLD B. NAVARES

Email: [email protected] | Tel. No.: 0999-997-1485 | Fax No.: (033) 337-4403

 University of San Agustin
General Luna St., 5000 Iloilo City, Philippines
www.usa.edu.ph

CENTER FOR RELIGIOUS STUDIES

MODULE 1: COURSE CONTENTS

Below is the Schedule for Module 1.

TIME TO
ACTIVITY DESCRIPTION OVERVIEW
COMPLETE
Opening Prayer 3 minutes
1 Topic 1: ORIENTATION
Course Description
Course Objectives
USA - Mission/Vision
20 minutes
USA Graduate Attributes
Office for Augustinian Studies and
Formation (ASF) on Policies and
Grading System, etc.
Brainstorming: Augustine on Ethics 10 minutes
2
Topic 2: BASIC CONCEPTS OF ETHICS 45 minutes

Assessment Task 1: Quiz 15 minutes

YouTube Review Presentation
Supplemental: Augustine on Ethics & 10 minutes
Philosophy
Assessment Task 2:
10 minutes
YouTube Journal Review
Assessment Task 3: Reflection Paper 5 minutes

Conclusion 5 minutes

Closing Prayer 2 minutes

2022-2023 Module Packet for ASF 3 (ST. AUGUSTINE ON ETHICS). Center for Religious SR. JEAN ALCAIN, LMSH 07/27/2022
Studies, University of San Agustin, Iloilo City, Philippines. DR. REYNOLD B. NAVARES

Email: [email protected] | Tel. No.: 0999-997-1485 | Fax No.: (033) 337-4403

 University of San Agustin
General Luna St., 5000 Iloilo City, Philippines
www.usa.edu.ph

CENTER FOR RELIGIOUS STUDIES

MODULE 1. Activity 1 – INTRODUCTION, COURSE DESCRIPTION, COURSE

OUTLINE PRESENTATION, GRADING SYSTEM, AND ASF POLICIES

Please refer to the ASF 3 Course Outline and Course Syllabus found in
the RESOURCES Portion of your NEO LMS. Thank you. God bless.

PRE-ASSESSMENT TASK: (Brainstorming)

Kindly answer the following questions freely and reflectively as I call

anyone of you. The teacher will initially ask some students, then all
students are to post your answer to the NEO-LMS. Score = 10 points.

1. Briefly introduce yourself as an Augustinian student and who is St.

Augustine to you?
2. Provide any of your understanding on the meaning of "Ethics"
3. Recall any St. Augustine teachings you know about Ethics?
4. How to do about it for your class-expectations?

SHORT DEEPENING LEADING TO THE LECTURE/DISCUSSION PROPER:

(The teacher can choose any of these options to do lecture/

discussion such as ppt/pdf presentation, pre-recorded lecture,
summary-overview processing, NEO-LMS tools, interactive apps such
as slido, poll everywhere, gamification, etc.).

2022-2023 Module Packet for ASF 3 (ST. AUGUSTINE ON ETHICS). Center for Religious SR. JEAN ALCAIN, LMSH 07/27/2022
Studies, University of San Agustin, Iloilo City, Philippines. DR. REYNOLD B. NAVARES

Email: [email protected] | Tel. No.: 0999-997-1485 | Fax No.: (033) 337-4403

 University of San Agustin
General Luna St., 5000 Iloilo City, Philippines
www.usa.edu.ph

CENTER FOR RELIGIOUS STUDIES

MODULE 1: Activity 2 – BASIC CONCEPTS OF AUGUSTINE ON ETHICS

Please read the script below.

1. AN INTRODUCTION TO ST. AUGUSTINE’S ETHICAL THOUGHT

In Augustine’s masterpiece “The City of God,”, “ethics” is

defined as an inquiry into the supreme good and how to attain it.
Augustine described supreme good (summum bonum) as that which
we seek for its own sake, not as a means to some other end, and
which makes one happy. (The City of God, book 8). Augustine also
calls “ethics” as “moral philosophy.” For him, happiness is the aim of
philosophy in general (Kent: 205; cf. On Free Will 3.8). The only purpose
of philosophizing is the attainment of happiness (cf. The City of God
19.1-3). One can also find all of this in Augustine’s thoughts about
ethics from a different perspective. Augustine’s approach is more a
posteriori and existential or based on the concrete human
experience. Instead of losing himself in complex casuistry and clever
use of technical terms, the African bishop speaks in simpler terms and
presents ideas that appeal both to the simple crowd and to the
educated élite society (Alvarez & Cabahug, 2021).

Augustine’s most basic questions concerned the nature of the

good, and how to seek it. Augustine was not an ethicist, insofar as that
is understood an autonomous inquiry. In asking what the good is, how
it relates to us, and how we should relate to it, Augustine’s thought
was at once metaphysical, theological, psychological, and
ontological – given his reliance on scripture and exegesis.

2022-2023 Module Packet for ASF 3 (ST. AUGUSTINE ON ETHICS). Center for Religious SR. JEAN ALCAIN, LMSH 07/27/2022
Studies, University of San Agustin, Iloilo City, Philippines. DR. REYNOLD B. NAVARES

Email: [email protected] | Tel. No.: 0999-997-1485 | Fax No.: (033) 337-4403

 University of San Agustin
General Luna St., 5000 Iloilo City, Philippines
www.usa.edu.ph

CENTER FOR RELIGIOUS STUDIES

Augustine’s democratic suggestion is that the good life is equally

available to all, emphasizing love, that history matters to morality,
restless search for a better life, resistance to moralism, aspiration for
freedom, affirmation of the material, and struggle to plumb human
psychology which is recognizable to us. In developing these themes,
Augustine not only summed up the ancient world but inaugurated
crucial themes in medieval and reformation thought. These themes
are misunderstood, unless we see the ways in which Augustine’s
attack on ancient ethics was rooted in his theological conviction that
everything is changed in and because of God’s grace in Christ. For
Augustine, the good life is not something we can achieve, but a
correlate of the love we are to receive (Counhoven, N.D.).

Augustine receives credit in ethics for having developed a

moral theory more fully than any of the Fathers of the Latin Church
(Meithe, 1982), Augustine has been the first to make Christian Ethics a
specific part of theology (Deman, 1957), distinguishing ethics from
theology. No treatise in Augustine focuses on ethics in particular.

Moral transformation in the process of Augustine’s own

conversion ensured that ethics would always bear an ambiguous
place within Augustine’s theology. The moral transformation was
certainly critical; Augustine’s own conversion was incomplete until
mere intellectual assent to Christianity gave way to moral resolve
(Conf.7 vis-à-vis 8). Moral transformation could not quite be central
for Augustine learned that God’s sovereign, gracious work must affect
true confession, heal Augustine’s will, and stabilize his loves.

The tension in Augustine’s ethical reflection has shaped

and even accentuated his legacy to Christian ethics. That legacy
combines an acute moral sense, certainly of an objective moral
2022-2023 Module Packet for ASF 3 (ST. AUGUSTINE ON ETHICS). Center for Religious SR. JEAN ALCAIN, LMSH 07/27/2022
Studies, University of San Agustin, Iloilo City, Philippines. DR. REYNOLD B. NAVARES

Email: [email protected] | Tel. No.: 0999-997-1485 | Fax No.: (033) 337-4403

 University of San Agustin
General Luna St., 5000 Iloilo City, Philippines
www.usa.edu.ph

CENTER FOR RELIGIOUS STUDIES

order, a sober assessment of the limits of human virtue, a complex

doctrine of Christian love and a refusal hitherto relinquish hope in
moral transformation that portray a simple matter of willful resolve.

To synthesize, Christian Ethics is defined as that part of

theology whose object is the foundation, attitudes and guidelines
which enable a person to attain his/her final goal. It is the theological
character of science which involves the study that takes place in the
light of reason and Christian faith.

2. AN INTRODUCTION TO ST. AUGUSTINE’S ETHICAL THOUGHT

PHILOSOPHICAL BACKGROUND (Fitzgerald, 1999)

Augustine’s teaching was that of a convert to the Christian faith.

Augustine both knew the classic culture and Manichean doctrine.
Augustine’s own education treated ethics as part of a philosophical
system that is inclusive of logic and physics. It focuses on the questions
of good and evil (cf. Ep.Man.2.1.1). Being informed about pagan
moral philosophy, Augustine’s principal sources were Cicero, Varro,
and Seneca, and “a number of most useful ethical principles” from
them (doc.Chr.2.40.60), but ideas were not incompatible with the
Christian faith. Augustine admired the rational basis for pagan moral
philosophy and entered into a critical dialogue with it.
Knowledgeable about Manichean moral teaching, Augustine’s own
participation as a “hearer” and from Manichean writings rejected its
dualistic ethics and its condemnation of what was bodily.

Augustine thought that the human soul was higher than the
body (mor.1.5.7), The soul was not the highest human good because
could be perfected by something else, e.g., by virtue or wisdom

2022-2023 Module Packet for ASF 3 (ST. AUGUSTINE ON ETHICS). Center for Religious SR. JEAN ALCAIN, LMSH 07/27/2022
Studies, University of San Agustin, Iloilo City, Philippines. DR. REYNOLD B. NAVARES

Email: [email protected] | Tel. No.: 0999-997-1485 | Fax No.: (033) 337-4403

 University of San Agustin
General Luna St., 5000 Iloilo City, Philippines
www.usa.edu.ph

CENTER FOR RELIGIOUS STUDIES

(mor.1.6.9). Augustine pointed God as the highest good: “if we follow

him, we live well and are also happy” (mor.1.6.10; lib.arb.1.15.33).

One consequence of Augustine’s position is that a certain order

was to be respected giving the highest importance to God, to the soul
and then to the bodily things. The soul is placed before the body, the
reason is more important than the inferior aspects of the soul, and
contemplation is to be preferred to rational activity (c.Faust.22.27). To
act morally is to pay attention to a scale of being whereby virtue
affirms being becoming like God, while sin tends toward non-being.
Greater or lesser participation in being is affirmed, whether a person is
more like God or more like animals (lib.arb.1.8.18; 1.15.33-1.16.35).
People lived rightly when their loves respected the natural order of
things. It was not necessary to renounce the bodily, sensitive, or social
life from the Neoplatonist’s perspective. For Augustine, God was to be
loved with all that one is (div.qu.83.35.2; doc.Chr.2.22.21), and
everything else was to be loved in relation to God (uti; cf. doc.
Chr.1.3.3).

SCRIPTURAL FOUNDATIONS (Fitzgerald, 1999)

Augustine reread the Bible in 427 AD and gathered a list of

Scripture texts as a guide to Christian moral living that would help
Christians know what divine law prescribes, forbids, or permits (spec.
prol.; cf. Possidius, Vita 28.3). Augustine asked Christians (en.
Ps.118.4.3) to look at the Scriptures as in a mirror and to evaluate their
progress in Christian living (ep.229.1; en.Ps.123.3). From the time of
Augustine’s conversion-the Scriptures were the touchstone of
Augustine’s own growth when ordained a priest, the basis of
Augustine’s ethical teaching.

2022-2023 Module Packet for ASF 3 (ST. AUGUSTINE ON ETHICS). Center for Religious SR. JEAN ALCAIN, LMSH 07/27/2022
Studies, University of San Agustin, Iloilo City, Philippines. DR. REYNOLD B. NAVARES

Email: [email protected] | Tel. No.: 0999-997-1485 | Fax No.: (033) 337-4403

 University of San Agustin
General Luna St., 5000 Iloilo City, Philippines
www.usa.edu.ph

CENTER FOR RELIGIOUS STUDIES

The Scriptures helped Augustine articulate the understanding of

ethical responsibility, especially that of the law written in the hearts of
all people… Augustine forged ethics in opposition to certain
interpretations of the Scriptures. Against the Manichee’s, Augustine
defended the Mosaic law as preparation for the New Law and
preparation for the incarnation of Christ (c.Faust.15.8; 16.10; 16.19;
en.Ps.118.25.4; doc.Chr.3.14.22). The law of Moses placed God in front
of human beings what they should have been able to see through
their conscience (c.Faust.31.1; en.Ps.57.1). The law of the Old
Testament was destined to be brought to perfection (Mt.5.17;
en.Ps.73.2; cath.s10.24) and the Gospels stimulated believers to
appreciate God’s providence (s.Dom.mon.1.16.49).

The Scriptures served as a standard way for spiritual progress and

Augustine insisted that God is the source of all goodness (Conf.10.4.5;
7.21.27) and even the origin of the desire to do good
(conf.10.27.38;1.1.1). Human beings have responsibility of making an
effort to be good.

3. SOURCES OF CHRISTIAN ETHICS:

Standards to evaluate good from bad. Pre-Vatican II moral

manuals listed three fonts for moral theology which are Scripture,
Tradition, and Magisterium. Catholic Encyclopedia (Broderick, 1987)
defines:

1) Sacred Scripture

It is the inspired word of God written under the inspiration of the

Holy Spirit and gathered in the order of the providence of God, which
destined
2022-2023 man
Module Packet to3a(ST.supernatural
for ASF end.
AUGUSTINE ON ETHICS). Center for Religious SR. JEAN ALCAIN, LMSH 07/27/2022
Studies, University of San Agustin, Iloilo City, Philippines. DR. REYNOLD B. NAVARES

Email: [email protected] | Tel. No.: 0999-997-1485 | Fax No.: (033) 337-4403

 University of San Agustin
General Luna St., 5000 Iloilo City, Philippines
www.usa.edu.ph

CENTER FOR RELIGIOUS STUDIES

2) Tradition

It is the body of revealed truth handed down from the Apostles

through the ages and contained in the doctrine, teaching, and
practice of the Catholic Church.

3) Magisterium

It is the power given by Christ to the Church together with infallibility

by which the Church teaches authoritatively the revealed truth of the
Scripture and holds forth the truth of tradition for salvation.

The Second Vatican Council has moved beyond these three-font

methodologies by allowing the Church authority and moral
theologians to work out on collaboration and dialogues to the moral
theology and ecumenical ethics.

Four principal sectors of sources for moral theology which provide

key aspectual paradigm that shows an overlap and interaction with
each other sources. (Bretzke; 2004). Bretzke later on, organized two
principal axes which are sacred claim axis (Scripture and Tradition)
and rational claim axis (Human Experience and Rational Reflection on
the Normatively Human).

1) Scripture Sector

The sacred text which has a special sacred claim to the Christian
community.
2022-2023 Module Packet for ASF 3 (ST. AUGUSTINE ON ETHICS). Center for Religious SR. JEAN ALCAIN, LMSH 07/27/2022
Studies, University of San Agustin, Iloilo City, Philippines. DR. REYNOLD B. NAVARES

Email: [email protected] | Tel. No.: 0999-997-1485 | Fax No.: (033) 337-4403

 University of San Agustin
General Luna St., 5000 Iloilo City, Philippines
www.usa.edu.ph

CENTER FOR RELIGIOUS STUDIES

It bears God’s own revelation and divine will and so it stresses

importantly, operates, and understood primarily in the canonical
sense within the lived tradition of the faith community.

“Theology in its entirety should conform to the Scriptures, and the

Scriptures should sustain and accompany all theological work,
because theology is concerned with ‘the truth of the gospel’
(Gal.2:5), and it can know that truth only if it investigates the normative
witness to it in the canon of sacred Scripture, and if, in doing so, it
relates the human words of the Bible to the living Word of God.” (ITC,
2011)

2) Tradition Sector

It represents the lived wisdom of the Christian community.

It referred to the writings of the early Church Fathers as well as the

teachings of the Church’s Magisterium.

It is not primarily just a content-laden set of creedal propositions or

extra-biblical revealed truths, but rather speaks of the essential
relationship we have as members of a faith community.

Schneider described three meanings of traditions (Schneiders, 1999):

a) Tradition, as the fundamental gift out of the Church’s

experiences throughout history, is the Holy Spirit who is the
presence of the risen Jesus making the Church the Body of Christ.

b) Tradition as content, is the sum total of appropriated and

transmitted Christian experience, out of which Christians
2022-2023 Module Packet for ASF 3 (ST. AUGUSTINE ON ETHICS). Center for Religious SR. JEAN ALCAIN, LMSH 07/27/2022
Studies, University of San Agustin, Iloilo City, Philippines. DR. REYNOLD B. NAVARES

Email: [email protected] | Tel. No.: 0999-997-1485 | Fax No.: (033) 337-4403

 University of San Agustin
General Luna St., 5000 Iloilo City, Philippines
www.usa.edu.ph

CENTER FOR RELIGIOUS STUDIES

throughout history select the material for renewed syntheses of

the faith.

c) Tradition also refers to the mode by which that content is made

available to successive generations of believers, the way in
which the tradition of the faith is carried on throughout history.

In sum, Tradition sector includes not only the theological

writings of the early Church Fathers and the development of
theological reflection on the meaning of Christian life found in
the Magisterium but also the historical collective experience of
the entire Christian community, our liturgical and sacramental
life and the living examples given to us by the saints.

3) Human Experience Sector

Involves not just individual’s own experience but the whole range
of scientific and social scientific disciplines that help us to gather,
organize, and interpret data drawn from our individual and collective
human experience.

It highlights more the affective, emotional, intuitive, and

imaginative sides of our personhood, and these aspects are crucial
for a holistic understanding and approach to the moral life.

Difficulties in conceiving raw experiences, whether good or bad

must always be interpreted and morally analyzed. These in order to
render an intelligible and useful understanding and not lead to fatal
errors in moral judgment. A systematic and expert study of the whole
human experiences may lead one to carefully understand and
undertake it in a greater methodological strength and prudence.
2022-2023 Module Packet for ASF 3 (ST. AUGUSTINE ON ETHICS). Center for Religious SR. JEAN ALCAIN, LMSH 07/27/2022
Studies, University of San Agustin, Iloilo City, Philippines. DR. REYNOLD B. NAVARES

Email: [email protected] | Tel. No.: 0999-997-1485 | Fax No.: (033) 337-4403

 University of San Agustin
General Luna St., 5000 Iloilo City, Philippines
www.usa.edu.ph

CENTER FOR RELIGIOUS STUDIES

4) Rational Reflection on the Normatively Human Sector

It refers to our understanding of what it means to be a human

person.

Human reason is used in the moral application of our individual and

collective human experiences to the whole human community. This
sector is grounded in God’s providence in order to build up various
aspects of in objective moral order and come up to the process of
constituting true and genuine human understanding that would be
an example of correct moral behavior.

Examples are human rights, moral philosophy and the whole

tradition of natural law theory.

It is important that to remember that any philosophical ethics,

including all-natural law theories are not free-floating abstractions or
independent realities waiting to be discovered, but rather are
grounded in concrete human nature that have to be verified through
experience.

Understanding of both human nature and the normatively human

behavior comes through rational reflection on the individual and
collective human experiences. It is not imposed on that experience in
an external fashion. There is a reciprocal dialectic relationship
between human experience and man’s understanding of what is and
should be normative human behavior.

2022-2023 Module Packet for ASF 3 (ST. AUGUSTINE ON ETHICS). Center for Religious SR. JEAN ALCAIN, LMSH 07/27/2022
Studies, University of San Agustin, Iloilo City, Philippines. DR. REYNOLD B. NAVARES

Email: [email protected] | Tel. No.: 0999-997-1485 | Fax No.: (033) 337-4403

 University of San Agustin
General Luna St., 5000 Iloilo City, Philippines
www.usa.edu.ph

CENTER FOR RELIGIOUS STUDIES

The use of the four sources for moral theology depends on the
overall stance one takes towards the understanding of reality. Moral
theology cannot be sectarian and parochial but must open to the
larger group. It means that one must bring into the methodological
use of moral sources both the sacred claim axis (Scripture & Tradition)
and rational claim axis (Human Experience and Rational Reflection on
the Normatively Human). The usage of its sources usually plays the vital
role to integrate both faith and reason in our Christian moral life as a
disciple of Christ.

MODULE 1. ASSESSMENT TASK 1: QUIZ

(Teacher has to prepare the questions. Options to do such as using

gamification, quiz dashboard provided by NEO-LMS, etc.).

Module 1, TLA 3 – YOUTUBE REVIEW SUPPLEMENTAL: AUGUSTINE ON

ETHICS & PHILOSOPHY

Instruction: The teacher can add this Teaching/Learning Activity as a

YouTube Review Supplement: AUGUSTINE ON ETHICS. The students
can watch the YouTube link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4cIuh91rxxU as an overview
and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBAxUBeVfsk as an
additional input for module 1 discussion.

For those who cannot access the link, see the transcription below:

2022-2023 Module Packet for ASF 3 (ST. AUGUSTINE ON ETHICS). Center for Religious SR. JEAN ALCAIN, LMSH 07/27/2022
Studies, University of San Agustin, Iloilo City, Philippines. DR. REYNOLD B. NAVARES

Email: [email protected] | Tel. No.: 0999-997-1485 | Fax No.: (033) 337-4403

 University of San Agustin
General Luna St., 5000 Iloilo City, Philippines
www.usa.edu.ph

CENTER FOR RELIGIOUS STUDIES

AUGUSTINIAN ETHICS: THE MORAL PHILOSOPHY OF ST. AUGUSTINE

Introduction, the ethics of St. Augustine is known to be eudemonistic

which means that it is about the attainment of happiness. Happiness,
Wisdom, and Reason Augustine considers ethics as a study for the
supreme good, giving contributions to the happiness of everyone.

God and the Order of Things, since God is the absolute and eternal
being and nothing or no one is better or higher than Him, God
therefore is the highest good in this world. Love of God and Moral
Living, Augustine believes that love is the center of our moral life.
However, we should be cautious on what we love because we may
also love the things that we think the good but actually lead us to evil.
Virtue, Double Love, and Charity, Augustine defines virtue as ‘the
perfect love of God’. Virtue is the beauty of true love ordered toward
God because to live virtuously is to love in doing the right things.
Augustine depicts the prime virtue of love by ‘double love’ command
taught in the Bible. Jesus told us to love not only God but also our
neighbors as well. Sin and Moral Evil, Augustine tells us that committing
a sin with full responsibility is the weakness of will. When the action is
carried out, what is sinful is not the action itself, or its consequences,
but the intention of the person. The Fall and God’s Grace, Augustine
claims that the disobedience of Adam and Eve in the creation are
evil acts of free will. This fallen nature is a state from which people
cannot attain genuine happiness. However, Augustine believes that
sin can be avoided if our corrupted nature be healed by God’s grace.
Without God’s graciously intervention, it is impossible for us to become
righteous.

2022-2023 Module Packet for ASF 3 (ST. AUGUSTINE ON ETHICS). Center for Religious SR. JEAN ALCAIN, LMSH 07/27/2022
Studies, University of San Agustin, Iloilo City, Philippines. DR. REYNOLD B. NAVARES

Email: [email protected] | Tel. No.: 0999-997-1485 | Fax No.: (033) 337-4403

 University of San Agustin
General Luna St., 5000 Iloilo City, Philippines
www.usa.edu.ph

CENTER FOR RELIGIOUS STUDIES

YOUTUBE REVIEW SUPPLEMENTAL: AUGUSTINE’S PHILOSOPHY

TRANSCRIPTION (6 minutes & 24 seconds):

Augustine was a Christian philosopher, who lived in the 4th and 5th
century A.D., on the fringes of the rapidly declining Roman Empire in
the North African town of Hippo. He served as bishop for 35 years,
proving popular and inspirational to his largely uneducated and poor
congregation. In his last days, a Germanic tribe known as the Vandals
burnt Hippo to the ground, destroyed the legions, made off with the
town’s young women, but left Augustine’s Cathedral and library
entirely untouched out of respect for the elderly philosopher’s
achievements. He matters to us non-Christians today because of what
he criticized about Rome, its values and its outlook, and because
Rome has so many things in common with the modern West,
especially the United States. The Romans believed in two things in
particular. One, EARTHLY HAPPINESS. They were on the whole an
optimistic lot. The builders of the Pont du Gard, and the Colosseum
had faith in technology, in the power of humans to master themselves
and in their ability to control nature and plot for their own happiness
and satisfaction. Writers like Cicero and Plutarch had a degree of
pride, ambition and confidence in the future, which with some
revisions wouldn’t be out of place in modern-day Palo Alto or the
pages of Wired.

The Romans were keen practitioners of what we would nowadays call

SELF-HELP training their audiences to greater success and
effectiveness. In their eyes, the human animal was something
eminently open to being perfected. Two, A JUST SOCIAL ORDER.

For long periods, the Romans trusted that their society was marked by
justice, JUSTITIA - people of ambition and intelligence could make it to
2022-2023 Module Packet for ASF 3 (ST. AUGUSTINE ON ETHICS). Center for Religious SR. JEAN ALCAIN, LMSH 07/27/2022
Studies, University of San Agustin, Iloilo City, Philippines. DR. REYNOLD B. NAVARES

Email: [email protected] | Tel. No.: 0999-997-1485 | Fax No.: (033) 337-4403

 University of San Agustin
General Luna St., 5000 Iloilo City, Philippines
www.usa.edu.ph

CENTER FOR RELIGIOUS STUDIES

the top. The army was trusted to be meritocratic. The capacity to

make money was held to reflect both practical ability and also a
degree of inner virtue. Therefore, showing off one’s wealth was
deemed honorable and a point of pride, and fame, was considered
a wholly respectable ideal. Augustine disagreed furiously with both of
these assumptions. In his masterpiece, The City of God, he dissected
each of these two points, that human life could be perfected and
that societies were just, in ways that continue to prove relevant to us
today. It was Augustine who came up with the idea of ORIGINAL SIN.

He proposed that all humans, not merely this or that unfortunate

example, were crooked because all of us are unwitting heirs to the
sins of Adam. Our sinful nature gives rise to what Augustine called a
LIBIDO DOMINANDI, a desire to dominate, which is evident in a brutal,
blinkered, merciless way we treat others in the world around us. We
cannot properly love, for we are constantly undermined by our
egoism and our pride. Our powers of reasoning and understanding
are fragile in the extreme. Lust haunts our days and nights. We failed
to understand ourselves. We chase phantoms. We are beset by
anxieties. Augustine concluded his assault by hiding all those
philosophers in his words “have wished, with amazing folly, to be
happy here on earth and to achieve bliss by their own efforts.” It might
sound depressing, but it may turn out to be a curious relief to be told
that our lives are awry not by coincidence but by definition simply
because we are human, and because nothing human can ever be
made entirely straight. We are creatures fated to intuit virtue and love,
but never quite being able to secure them for ourselves. Our
relationships, careers, and countries are necessarily not as we’d want
them to be.

2022-2023 Module Packet for ASF 3 (ST. AUGUSTINE ON ETHICS). Center for Religious SR. JEAN ALCAIN, LMSH 07/27/2022
Studies, University of San Agustin, Iloilo City, Philippines. DR. REYNOLD B. NAVARES

Email: [email protected] | Tel. No.: 0999-997-1485 | Fax No.: (033) 337-4403

 University of San Agustin
General Luna St., 5000 Iloilo City, Philippines
www.usa.edu.ph

CENTER FOR RELIGIOUS STUDIES

It isn’t anything specific we have done - the odds are simply stacked
against us from the start. Augustinian pessimism takes off some of the
pressure we might feel when we slowly come to terms with the
imperfect nature of pretty much everything we do and are. We
shouldn’t rage or feel we’ve been persecuted or singled out for undue
punishment. It’s simply the human condition, the legacy of what we
might as well, even we don’t believe in Augustine’s theology, call
ORIGINAL SIN. Romans had, in their most ambitious moments, thought
themselves to be running a meritocracy - a society where those who
got to the top were deemed to have done so on the back of their
own virtues. After the Emperor Constantine’s conversion to
Christianity, the philosopher Eusebious even proposed that earthly
power was God’s instrument for establishing Christianity on earth, so
that the powerful in Rome were now not just privileged, but also
blessed and righteous in God’s eyes. What arrogant, boastful and
cruel claims, responded Augustine, there never was nor ever could be
justice in Rome, or indeed anywhere else on earth. God didn’t give
good people wealth and power, and nor did he necessarily condemn
those who lacked them. Augustine distinguished between what he
called TWO CITIES, the CITY OF MEN, and the CITY OF GOD. The latter
was an ideal of the future, a heavenly paradise where the good
would finally dominate, here power would be properly allied to justice,
and where virtue would reign. But men could never build such a city
alone, and should never believe themselves capable of doing so.
They were condemned to dwell only in the city of men which was a
pervasively flawed society,

where money could never accurately track virtue. In Augustine’s

formulation, true justice has no existence, save in that republic whose
founder and ruler is Christ. Again, it may sound bleak, but it makes
2022-2023 Module Packet for ASF 3 (ST. AUGUSTINE ON ETHICS). Center for Religious SR. JEAN ALCAIN, LMSH 07/27/2022
Studies, University of San Agustin, Iloilo City, Philippines. DR. REYNOLD B. NAVARES

Email: [email protected] | Tel. No.: 0999-997-1485 | Fax No.: (033) 337-4403

 University of San Agustin
General Luna St., 5000 Iloilo City, Philippines
www.usa.edu.ph

CENTER FOR RELIGIOUS STUDIES

Augustine’s philosophy extremely generous towards failure, poverty,

and defeat, our own and that of others. It’s not for humans to judge
each other by outward markers of success. From this analysis flows a
lack of moralism and snobbery. It’s our duty to be skeptical about
power and generous towards failure. We don’t need to be Christians
to be comforted by both these points. They are the religion’s universal
gifts to political philosophy and human psychology. They stand as
permanent reminders of some of the dangers and cruelties of
believing that the life could be made perfect or the poverty and
obscurity are reliable indicators of vice in a city of men.

MODULE 1. ASSESSMENT TASK 2: YOUTUBE JOURNAL TEST

Instructions: Based on the above two videos, answer the following

questions given and post your answer to the NEO-LMS. (20 pts)

1. What is the title of the two YouTube videos?

2. How do you appreciate the ethical thoughts, philosophy, and
teachings of Saint Augustine?

MODULE 1. ASSESSMENT TASK 3: REFLECTION PAPER

Answer the question given and post your answer to the NEO-LMS.

Reflect on the ways how you can become a person by observing and
adhering to Augustinian principles. (10 pts)

2022-2023 Module Packet for ASF 3 (ST. AUGUSTINE ON ETHICS). Center for Religious SR. JEAN ALCAIN, LMSH 07/27/2022
Studies, University of San Agustin, Iloilo City, Philippines. DR. REYNOLD B. NAVARES

Email: [email protected] | Tel. No.: 0999-997-1485 | Fax No.: (033) 337-4403

 University of San Agustin
General Luna St., 5000 Iloilo City, Philippines
www.usa.edu.ph

CENTER FOR RELIGIOUS STUDIES

MODULE 1. CONCLUSION

The general introduction to Saint Augustine on Ethics presents the

teachings of Saint Augustine on ethics. It covers the basic concepts
of Christian ethics which introduce us to the essence and goal of
Christian ethics or morality. We have also presented topics that focus
on the philosophical background and scriptural foundations,
definition of Christian ethics, principles, and sources of Christian ethics.

MODULE 1: CLOSING PRAYER

Closing Prayer: Please pray the Official Prayer after Class.

Leader: Our help is in the name of the Lord,

All: Who made heaven and earth.
Leader: Let us pray.
All: God, the desire of every human heart, you
moved Saint Augustine to seek restlessly for truth
and peace. Touch our hearts with his burning
desire for wisdom, for the Word made flesh. We
Leader: ask this through Christ, our Lord. Amen.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son, and to
All: the Holy Spirit.
As it was in the beginning, is now, and will be
forever. Amen.

2022-2023 Module Packet for ASF 3 (ST. AUGUSTINE ON ETHICS). Center for Religious SR. JEAN ALCAIN, LMSH 07/27/2022
Studies, University of San Agustin, Iloilo City, Philippines. DR. REYNOLD B. NAVARES

Email: [email protected] | Tel. No.: 0999-997-1485 | Fax No.: (033) 337-4403

 University of San Agustin
General Luna St., 5000 Iloilo City, Philippines
www.usa.edu.ph

CENTER FOR RELIGIOUS STUDIES

MODULE 1. REFERENCES:

 Alvarez, Fr. Czar Emmanuel V., OSA and Cabahug, Fr. Reo G.,
OSA (2021). ReSt 1: 72-117.
 Counhoven, Jesse (N.D.) St. Augustine (Augustine of Hippo: An
Introduction to his Ethical Thought).
https://www.academia.edu/2519976/Saint_Augustine_Augustin
e_of_Hippo_An_Introduction_to_his_Ethical_Thought_
 The Jerusalem Bible. (2005). Philippines: Philippine Bible Society.
 University of San Agustin Personnel Manual (2015) and Student
Handbook. Revised Edition (2017).

2022-2023 Module Packet for ASF 3 (ST. AUGUSTINE ON ETHICS). Center for Religious SR. JEAN ALCAIN, LMSH 07/27/2022
Studies, University of San Agustin, Iloilo City, Philippines. DR. REYNOLD B. NAVARES

Email: [email protected] | Tel. No.: 0999-997-1485 | Fax No.: (033) 337-4403

ASF 3 MODULE 1

General
Introduction:
Saint Augustine
on Ethics
Veronica Dy-Liacco, PhD - prepared using the
Modules created by Dr. Reynold Navares, Phd
and Sr. Jean Alcain
ASF 3: MODULE 1 GEN. INTRO. AUGUSTINE ON ETHICS

Topics of this
Presentation
HIGHLIGHTS AND INSIGHTS

PRE-ASSESSMENT TASK:
BRAINSTORMING ACTIVITY (10PTS.)
AN INTRO. TO ST. AUGUSTINE'S ETHICS
PHILOSOPHICAL-SCRIPTURAL
BACKGROUND AND FOUNDATIONS
SOURCES OF CHRISTIAN ETHICS
 Photo credit: USA Nursing Student
Council FB page (March 12, 2020),

BRAINSTORMING https://web.facebook.com/USANSC/

ACTIVITY(10PTS.)
Recitation with submitted output c/o NEO
Personal Introduction
INTRODUCE YOURSELF TO THE CLASS

Who is Saint Augustine to you?

LET US KNOW HOW SAINT AUGUSTINE
HAS HELPED YOU IN YOUR LIFE AS A
STUDENT, AND AS A SON OR DAUGHTER,
BROTHER OR SISTER, ETC.

ASF 3 MODULE 1
 Photo credit: Jessica, Catholic Cuisine
(2013),
http://catholiccuisine.blogspot.com/2

WHAT IS
013/10/the-2013-saint-o-lantern-
link-up.html

ETHICS FOR

ASF 3: MODULE 1 AUGUSTINE ON ETHICS

AUGUSTINE?
Simply put, ethics for Augustine is to
inquire about the supreme good for its
own sake, and which is the source of
true happiness in this life.
HE DEFINES ETHICS AS A MORAL
PHILOSOPHY, AND THEREFORE PHILOSOPHY
MUST AIM FOR THIS HAPPINESS. (CITY OF GOD
19.1-3)

Art by Jean Fouquet, Enthronement of

the Virgin, or The Trinity in its Glory (ca.
1445).
 AUGUSTINE SURVEYS THINGS THAT
MAKE MAN HAPPY AS PER THE
PHILOSOPHERS (C/O MARKUS VARRO)

1. PLEASURE 2. REPOSE 3. PLEASURE + 4. THINGS OF

REPOSE (C/O NATURE
THINGS THAT MAKE THE NOT HAVING TO DEAL
EPICURUS)
BODY FEEL GOOD. EX., WITH ANY PERSONAL HEALTH AND
DELICIOUS FOOD AND INCONVEIENCES. EX. SAFETY, THE
DRINK, A MASSAGE, ETC. HAVING TO CLEAN UP EPICURUS COMBINES CULTIVATION OF ONE'S
AFTER ONESELF, DEAL BOTH FOR THE MENTAL GIFTS, ETC.
WITH HORRIBLE ULTIMATE LEVELS OF
COMMUTE TO AND FROM HUMAN HAPPINESS
WORK/SCHOOL, ETC. THAT CAN BE ACHIEVED.

ASF 3: MODULE 1 AUGUSTINE ON ETHICS

FOR AUGUSTINE,
ETHICS IS A MORAL
PHILOSOPHY

ASF 3: MODULE 1 AUGUSTINE ON ETHICS

Many philosophies ask what makes a man
happy, however these to Augustine are no
more than "empty dreams" that "differ from
the hope which God gives to us" (City of God
19.1).

AUGUSTINE INQUIRES OF THE GOOD, "HOW [THE

GOOD] RELATES TO US, AND HOW WE SHOULD
RELATE TO [THE GOOD]" - WHICH MAKES HIM
DIFFERENT FROM THE OTHER PHILOSOPHERS
BEFORE HIM (ASF 3 MODULE 1 ACT. 2.1)

Art by Benventunto Di Giovanni,

Christ in Limbo (1491).
AUGUSTINE
CHALLENGES THE
PHILOSOPHIES OF

ASF 3: MODULE 1 AUGUSTINE ON ETHICS

HIS TIME
He contends that happiness is something we
should not strive to obtain for ourselves, but
which comes, rather, "as a gift. Our task is to
live patiently, in faith and hope"
(Couenhoven 2013 p. 4).
AUGUSTINE IS CREDITED AS THE FIRST TO HAVE
DISCUSSED ETHICS AS A SPECIFIC PART OF
THEOLOGY, AND YET DISTINCT FROM IT (DEMAN
1957).
THE AMBIGUOUS
PLACE OF ETHICS
IN THEOLOGY

ASF 3: MODULE 1 AUGUSTINE ON ETHICS

Ethics for Augustine is not completely reliant
on human agency, but on the grace of God.
This grace transforms our loves to be more
oriented to God, who is the greatest Good.

MORAL TRANSFORMATION FOR AUGUSTINE IS

ABOUT GOD'S WORK OF TRANSOFRMATION IN US
(SEE ALSO COUENHOVEN 2013 P, 5).
MORAL
TRANSFORMATION
IN AUGUSTINE

ASF 3: MODULE 1 AUGUSTINE ON ETHICS

Moral Transformation is less about human
agency or striving (ie., in the exercise of
virtue), and more about hope in the work of
Christ for the transformation of our hearts
into Christ himself.

AUGUSTINE'S ETHICS IS ABOUT THE LOVE OF

CHRIST THAT DWELLS IN US.
PHILOSOPHICAL
BACKGROUND
INFLUENCED BY NEO-PLATONISM
BUT DID NOT ACCEPT IT COMPLETELY.

MODIFIED THE PHILOSOPHY TO FIT

HIS NEWLY FOUND CHRISTIAN VIEWS.
DEALT WITH THE QUESTION OF GOOD
AND EVIL, HE COUNTERED THAT THE
BODY IS NOT THE SOURCE OF EVIL,

SOURCE: ARTHUR HOLMES, A HISTORY OF

PHILOSOPHY 20: AUGUSTINE AND NEO-
PLATONISM, HTTPS://YOUTU.BE/QPBVJS4PU-4.
PHILOSOPHICAL
BACKGROUND
AND FOUNDATIONS

AUGUSTINE RETAINED THE NEO-

PLATONIC VIEW THAT THE SOUL IS
SUPERIOR TO THE BODY.

BUT AS A CHRISTIAN THINKER,

AUGUSTINE TAUGHT THAT THE SOUL CAN
FIND ITS PERFECTION IN GOD.

SOURCE: ASF 3: MODULE 1 AUGUSTINE ON ETHICS

ETHICAL THERE IS A RIGHT ORDER
IMPLICATIONS
SOUL FIRST, BODY SECOND

CONTEMPLATION FIRST,
OTHER EXCERCISES OF
REASON LATER.

THIS IS HOW TO LIVE

CLOSER TO GOD
SCRIPTURAL
FOUNDATIONS
SCRIPTURE IS A MIRROR
WE MEASURE OUR PROGRESS IN THE
CHRISTIAN LIFE BY MEANS OF THE
SCRIPTURES.

THE LAW IS WRITTEN IN OUR HEARTS

MOSAIC LAW WAS IN PREPARATION FOR
THE NEW LAW, OR CHRIST'S
FULFILLMENT OF THE LAW. GOD IS THE
SOURCE OF ALL GOODNESS (IN US).

ASF 3 MODULE 1 AUGUSTINE ON ETHICS

 Sources of Christian Ethics
FOR FORMING CONSCIENCE ON GOOD AND EVIL

SCR IPTUR E TRAD ITION MA GIS TE RIU M

The Sacred Text which has The transmission of the The teaching office of the
a special sacred claim on Divine Revelation to the Church, which interprets
the Christian Community. generations of the the Scripture and the
Christian faithful. Tradition.
Scriptures are normative
for the moral and
ethical considerations of
the Christian
community.

We can never go against

the Divine Revelation.

ASF 3: Module 1
Augustine on Ethics
Tradition
CONCRE TE MANIFE STATION O F THE
WOR K OF THE HOLY SPIRIT IN THE
CH UR CH
The presence of the Holy Spirit is what animates
the Church as the Body of Christ.

THE W AY TH AT THE FA ITH IS

TRA NSM ITTED
The treasure of the Christian community which
preserves the sacraments and the liturgy as
experienced by the saints before us.

ASF 3: Module 1 Augustine on Ethics

 Photo taken from Roy Lagarde, Pope
Names Iloilo City Priest as Cebu
Auxiliary Bishop (Jul 17, 2019),

Why is the
https://pressone.ph/pope-names-
iloilo-priest-as-cebu-auxiliary-
bishop/.

Magisterium
Important?

ASF 3: Module 1 Augustine on Ethics

ITS' PUROSE IS TO ENSURE
FIDELITY TO THE TEACHINGS OF
THE APOSTLES ESPECIALLY IN
MATTERS OF FAITH AND MORALS.
CCC 86

The Magisterium is a
servant to the Word of
God and teaches only
what has been handed
down to it. It listens to
God's Word with
devotion and guards it
with dedication, and
teaches it with fidelity.

ASF 3: Module 1 Augustine

on Ethics
CCC 2033

The Magisterium of the

pastors of the Church in
morals is exercised in
catechesis and
preaching, with the help
of the work of
theologians and spiritual
authors.

ASF 3: Module 1 Augustine

on Ethics
CCC 2033 (CONT'D.)

The Magisterium hands

down the deposit of
Christian moral
teachings composed of
rules, commandments,
and virtues proceeding
from faith in Christ and
animated by charity.

ASF 3: Module 1 Augustine

on Ethics
 Asynchronous
Essay Activity
(Summative -
ASF 3: Module 1 Augustine on Ethics

Graded)
ANSWER THE FOLLOWING
QUESTION:
Reflect on the ways how you can
become a better person by observing
and adhering to Augustinian principles.
(10 pts).
 University of San Agustin
General Luna St., 5000 Iloilo City, Philippines
www.usa.edu.ph

CENTER FOR RELIGIOUS STUDIES

MODULE 2: THE HUMAN PERSON

MODULE 2: OPENING PRAYER

INSTRUCTION: IF YOU ARE READY, YOU CAN NOW START WITH MODULE 2.

Opening Prayer: As we start with this lesson, I invite you

to pray the Official Prayer before class.

Leader: When we live in unity,

All: How good and how pleasant it is.
Leader: Pray for us, Holy Father Augustine,
All: That we may dwell together in peace.
Leader: Let us pray,
All: God our Father, Your Son promised to be
present in the midst of all who come together in
His name. Help us to recognize His presence
among us and experience in our hearts the
abundance of Your grace, Your mercy, and
Your peace, in truth and in love. We ask this,
through Christ our Lord. Amen.

2022-2023 Module Packet for ASF 3 (ST. AUGUSTINE ON ETHICS). Center for Religious SR. JEAN ALCAIN, LMSH 07/27/2022
Studies, University of San Agustin, Iloilo City, Philippines. DR. REYNOLD B. NAVARES

Email: [email protected] | Tel. No.: 0999-997-1485 | Fax No.: (033) 337-4403

 University of San Agustin
General Luna St., 5000 Iloilo City, Philippines
www.usa.edu.ph

CENTER FOR RELIGIOUS STUDIES

A GRACE-FILLED DAY! WELCOME TO MODULE 2.

Welcome to Module 2, The Human Person. This module focuses on the

teachings of St. Augustine regarding the human persons and their
quest for happiness. It considers human persons as created beings
and fallen yet redeemed by Christ. Some anthropological
presuppositions about the human persons are also included in the
discussion.

Consultation hours:
Phone/messenger:
Virtual time:

MODULE 2: LEARNING OBJECTIVES

By the end of Module 2, students will be able to:

1. manifest understanding on the dignity of the human person;

2. demonstrate ways to show respect and love for oneself and
others;
3. show appreciation to God for the gift of oneself.

2022-2023 Module Packet for ASF 3 (ST. AUGUSTINE ON ETHICS). Center for Religious SR. JEAN ALCAIN, LMSH 07/27/2022
Studies, University of San Agustin, Iloilo City, Philippines. DR. REYNOLD B. NAVARES

Email: [email protected] | Tel. No.: 0999-997-1485 | Fax No.: (033) 337-4403

 University of San Agustin
General Luna St., 5000 Iloilo City, Philippines
www.usa.edu.ph

CENTER FOR RELIGIOUS STUDIES

MODULE 2: COURSE CONTENTS

Below is the Schedule for Module 2.

TIME TO
ACTIVITY DESCRIPTION OVERVIEW
COMPLETE
Opening Prayer 3 minutes

Learning Objectives 2 minutes

1 Dyad Sharing 5 minutes

Topic 1: Humanity’s Quest for
2A 20 minutes
Happiness
Topic 2: The Nature of the Human
2B 20 minutes
Person
Topic 3: Some Anthropological
2C Presuppositions about Human 20 minutes
Person
Assessment Task 1: Poem
15 minutes
Composition
Assessment Task 2: Quiz 15 minutes

Conclusion 5 minutes

Closing Prayer 2 minutes

References

2022-2023 Module Packet for ASF 3 (ST. AUGUSTINE ON ETHICS). Center for Religious SR. JEAN ALCAIN, LMSH 07/27/2022
Studies, University of San Agustin, Iloilo City, Philippines. DR. REYNOLD B. NAVARES

Email: [email protected] | Tel. No.: 0999-997-1485 | Fax No.: (033) 337-4403

 University of San Agustin
General Luna St., 5000 Iloilo City, Philippines
www.usa.edu.ph

CENTER FOR RELIGIOUS STUDIES

MODULE 2. Activity 1 – DYAD SHARING

Kindly follow the instructions below.

Instruction: Find a partner, share and answer the questions below. Post
the summary of your sharing in the NEO-LMS. Asynchronous period.

Score: 10 points.

1. How would you define happiness?

2. What led you to develop such an idea of happiness?
3. What are the objects of your desire, which you think can make
you happy?
4. What role does your desire for happiness occupy in your daily
life?

SHORT DEEPENING LEADING TO THE LECTURE/DISCUSSION PROPER:

(The teacher can choose any of these options to do lecture/

discussion such as ppt/pdf presentation, pre-recorded lecture,
summary-overview processing, NEO-LMS tools, interactive apps such
as slido, poll everywhere, gamification, etc.).

2022-2023 Module Packet for ASF 3 (ST. AUGUSTINE ON ETHICS). Center for Religious SR. JEAN ALCAIN, LMSH 07/27/2022
Studies, University of San Agustin, Iloilo City, Philippines. DR. REYNOLD B. NAVARES

Email: [email protected] | Tel. No.: 0999-997-1485 | Fax No.: (033) 337-4403

 University of San Agustin
General Luna St., 5000 Iloilo City, Philippines
www.usa.edu.ph

CENTER FOR RELIGIOUS STUDIES

MODULE 2: Activity 2A – HUMANITY’S QUEST FOR HAPPINESS (Alvarez &

Cabahug, 2021)

Please read the script below.

1. AUGUSTINE’S PERSONAL QUEST FOR HAPPINESS

Augustine describes happiness as consisting in man’s

participation in God or “becoming like God.” This idea clearly comes
from Plato, whom Augustine paraphrases as saying that “the wise
man is the man who imitates, knows and loves this God, and that
participation in this God brings man happiness” (The City of God 8.5).
The Philosopher identifies God with the summum bonum, the
attainment of which “leaves us nothing more to seek for our
happiness. For this reason, it is called the ’end’; everything else we
desire for the sake of this, this we desire for itself alone” (The City of
God 8.8).

Augustine’s way of thinking was “eudemonistic” (Gilson, 1960).

Not only his way of thinking but Augustine’s entire life was a constant
search for happiness. Augustinian ethics should be understood within
the context of Augustine’s search for happiness. Maurer says, “All the
resources of his mind and heart are concentrated on this enterprise”
(Maurer, 1982). A quick review of the African thinker’s life suffices to
demonstrate how the search for happiness accompanied
Augustine’s childhood to the very end. This eudemonistic quest
undertook various forms along the course of Augustine’s life and can
be seen in the different objects with which Augustine associated.

In the beginning, Augustine thought that happiness is being

surrounded by friends who sometimes led Augustine along the wrong
2022-2023 Module Packet for ASF 3 (ST. AUGUSTINE ON ETHICS). Center for Religious SR. JEAN ALCAIN, LMSH 07/27/2022
Studies, University of San Agustin, Iloilo City, Philippines. DR. REYNOLD B. NAVARES

Email: [email protected] | Tel. No.: 0999-997-1485 | Fax No.: (033) 337-4403

 University of San Agustin
General Luna St., 5000 Iloilo City, Philippines
www.usa.edu.ph

CENTER FOR RELIGIOUS STUDIES

path. There was also a time when Augustine thought that happiness
consisted in satisfying the sensual desires which led Augustine to get
involved with an unnamed woman who later became the mother of
Augustine’s son Adeodatus.

During their college days and initial professional careers aspired

to be rich and famous which Augustine thought could find happiness.
Augustine’s quest for happiness took on a more philosophical twist
than what happened upon reading Cicero’s Hontensius. Augustine’s
eudemonistic search was tied up with fleeting objects of the present
life which are: 1) purely human friendship, 2) sexual gratification, 3)
material wealth, and 4) fame, inscribed in Augustine’s
autobiographical work the Confessions as “human vanity” (Conf.
3.4.7). Augustine in early thirties realized that true and lasting
happiness consisted in the possession of God for it presupposed
attachment to things that last and is not subject to change.

2. UNIVERSALITY OF MAN’S DESIRE FOR HAPPINESS

Augustine believed that the desire for happiness is universal. In

one of Augustine’s sermons: “All men love happiness… Whether they
lead a good life or a bad one, they want to be happy; but not all
attain to what all desire. All wish to be happy; none will be so but those
who wish to be good” (Sermon 3.15 on Ps 32).

In Augustine’s writings, one sees Augustine’s understanding of

happiness changed along the course of time. First, Augustine thought
that it was enough for man to possess whatever one wanted in order
to be happy: “Happy is he who has what he wants” (On Happy Life
10). Augustine, later on, realized that it was not enough to have
anything one desired in order to be happy. The object of one’s desire
must also be intrinsically good or good in itself: “No one is happy unless
he has all that he wants and wants nothing that is evil” (On the Trinity

2022-2023 Module Packet for ASF 3 (ST. AUGUSTINE ON ETHICS). Center for Religious SR. JEAN ALCAIN, LMSH 07/27/2022
Studies, University of San Agustin, Iloilo City, Philippines. DR. REYNOLD B. NAVARES

Email: [email protected] | Tel. No.: 0999-997-1485 | Fax No.: (033) 337-4403

 University of San Agustin
General Luna St., 5000 Iloilo City, Philippines
www.usa.edu.ph

CENTER FOR RELIGIOUS STUDIES

13.5.8). Augustine did not stop there. Augustine came to a deeper

understanding of happiness when Augustine wrote that “happy is he
who enjoys the highest good” (On Free Will 2.13.36). Augustine added
that: “Happiness consists in the enjoyment of a good other than which
there is nothing better, which we call the chief good” (On the Lifestyle
of the Catholic Church 3). Augustine’s conversion in 386 started to
identify that unless one possessed that sole and highest good not
subject to change – God, true happiness is not attained.

3. NATURE OF HAPPINESS

The present world may give us momentary glimpses of true

happiness, but the perfect kind of happiness can never be reached
in this world because “even though men are satisfied with what man
has at the present moment, the prospect of death causes fear that all
the goods man possess here and now will eventually be lost (On
Happy Life 2.11; cf. Burt, 1999). Augustine asserts that “there will be no
happy life if there is no immortality” (On the Trinity 13.7.10). Humans
can only achieve this kind of immortality when they participate in the
life of God. Augustine expressed to Evodius: “your happiness will come
about you, not my will, but by the necessity of God’s action” (On Free
Will 3.3.26).

4. SOME PHILOSOPHICAL INFLUENCES

The influence of ancient philosophy on Augustine’s idea of

happiness is quite easy to discern (cf. Schlabach, 1999). Ancient
Greek thinkers in particular thought of happiness as consisting in the
possession of some good spirit – an “eu-daimon” (hence we have the
term “eudemonism” as referring to a man’s quest for happiness). The
2022-2023 Module Packet for ASF 3 (ST. AUGUSTINE ON ETHICS). Center for Religious SR. JEAN ALCAIN, LMSH 07/27/2022
Studies, University of San Agustin, Iloilo City, Philippines. DR. REYNOLD B. NAVARES

Email: [email protected] | Tel. No.: 0999-997-1485 | Fax No.: (033) 337-4403

 University of San Agustin
General Luna St., 5000 Iloilo City, Philippines
www.usa.edu.ph

CENTER FOR RELIGIOUS STUDIES

term “daimon” specifically refers to a “god in the individual guarding

the soul’s destiny” (Braun, 1999). The Greeks believed that allowing
oneself to be ruled by such spirit and trying to please it was the key to
happiness and success in life.

Some philosophers also conceived happiness as consisting of

living a rational life or a life governed by reason. For Plato, the reason
was man’s highest faculty, and one should use it to control man’s
lower appetites (desires of the “lower soul” and of the body). Aristotle,
on the other hand, thought that happiness consisted in the
observance of the so-called “golden mean” – in avoiding extremes
and cultivating virtues. The Stoics proposed the ideal of “apatheia”
(often loosely translated as “indifference” to what they considered
“passions”).

Against this backdrop of lofty ideas concerning happiness, one

also finds some ancient thinkers who proposed a rather base notion
of it. Epicureans taught people that happiness consisted in a life of
pleasure. The Cynics also believed that happiness consisted in living a
life dictated by nature and satisfying the “calls of nature” anywhere
and at all times.

Augustine was certainly familiar with and was influenced by the

different notions of happiness espoused by ancient Greek and Roman
philosophers. Augustine assumed a very critical attitude towards them
after conversion to the Christian faith. Augustine criticized all pagan
philosophers for giving a false account of happiness (Kent, 2001).

The teachings of the Sacred Scripture and of the Catholic

Church at that time became Augustine’s constant point of reference.
Augustine accepted classical philosophical ideas that were not in
contradiction with the Catholic teachings and rejected those that

2022-2023 Module Packet for ASF 3 (ST. AUGUSTINE ON ETHICS). Center for Religious SR. JEAN ALCAIN, LMSH 07/27/2022
Studies, University of San Agustin, Iloilo City, Philippines. DR. REYNOLD B. NAVARES

Email: [email protected] | Tel. No.: 0999-997-1485 | Fax No.: (033) 337-4403

 University of San Agustin
General Luna St., 5000 Iloilo City, Philippines
www.usa.edu.ph

CENTER FOR RELIGIOUS STUDIES

were against it. Among the various philosophies that were available-
Augustine considered Platonism as closest the Christian truth. It
liberated Augustine from the materialism of the Manicheans and the
skepticism of the Academics. Augustine wrote: “Plato was the one
who shone with a glory which far excelled that of the others and who
not unjustly eclipsed them all” (The City of God 8.4). In the book
Against the Academics 3.20.43 Augustine asserted: “I am confident
that I shall find among the Platonists what is not in opposition to our
Sacred Scriptures,” On the other hand in The City of God 8.4 is
inscribed: “There are none who come nearer to us than the Platonists”
and in 8.9 Augustine considered the Platonic teachings as “the closest
approximation to our Christian position.” In On True Religion 7
Augustine said: “If those men (sc. the Platonists) could have had this
life ever again with us … they would have become Christians, with the
change of a few words and statements.”

MODULE 2: Activity 2B – THE NATURE OF HUMAN PERSON

Please read the script below.

Who am I? Why am I here on the earth? Why do I have to die?

Where does life come from? Is there an ultimate purpose that gives
meaning to my life and even to my suffering? These questions help us
to ponder and reflect on the human person. This topic would help us
explore the Augustinian perspective of being a human person.

The ancient and medieval mindsets presume that ethical life

should be based on human nature or must serve as the proper
expression of what humanity is or ought to be. Augustine imbibed the

2022-2023 Module Packet for ASF 3 (ST. AUGUSTINE ON ETHICS). Center for Religious SR. JEAN ALCAIN, LMSH 07/27/2022
Studies, University of San Agustin, Iloilo City, Philippines. DR. REYNOLD B. NAVARES

Email: [email protected] | Tel. No.: 0999-997-1485 | Fax No.: (033) 337-4403

 University of San Agustin
General Luna St., 5000 Iloilo City, Philippines
www.usa.edu.ph

CENTER FOR RELIGIOUS STUDIES

basic Christian notions of humanity as a creature that was (1) created,

(2) that has fallen, (3) and was redeemed by Christ (Cabahug, 2021).

1. HUMAN PERSON, AS A CREATED BEING

The self is the evident materiality of man. Nature which man

shares with other creatures in the physical world is described by
Christian doctrines that humans are created in God’s image and
likeness (Gen.1:26) and is endowed with rational nature and
eternally destined. St. Augustine perceived man formerly as “a
rational soul using a body” and later, a rational substance
consisting of soul and body (Trinity 15.7.11). Augustine says that
“anyone who wished to separate the body from human nature is
foolish” (On the Soul & its Origin, IV.2.3).

The juxtaposition of the rational soul and the material body in

a human person places him/her in the order of things where he/she
realizes that there are degrees or hierarchies of existence where
some things are greater or lesser than the other. Man finds the self
in the middle of the spiritual and the material realm where the
former is greater than the latter. Human persons are implanted by
its Creator with the desire for a better degree of existence than
what he/she has now. This desire for a higher existence can only be
fulfilled in man’s mutual union with his/her Creator. Augustine
popularly exclaimed “you have made us and drawn us to Yourself,
and our heart is restless until it rests in You (Conf.1.1).

2022-2023 Module Packet for ASF 3 (ST. AUGUSTINE ON ETHICS). Center for Religious SR. JEAN ALCAIN, LMSH 07/27/2022
Studies, University of San Agustin, Iloilo City, Philippines. DR. REYNOLD B. NAVARES

Email: [email protected] | Tel. No.: 0999-997-1485 | Fax No.: (033) 337-4403

 University of San Agustin
General Luna St., 5000 Iloilo City, Philippines
www.usa.edu.ph

CENTER FOR RELIGIOUS STUDIES

2. THE FALLEN HUMANITY YET REDEEMED BY CHRIST

Endowed with a rational nature man is gifted by God with free will. As
man finds himself/herself amidst thing that are greater or lower than
him/herself in value, he/she is given the free will to choose where
he/she should direct his/her motivations and actions. The history of
salvation narrated that humanity in their first parents misused their free
choice of the will placing every human person under the state of sin
and enduring its consequent effects. Man’s sin calls for
condemnation, St. Augustine describes such event as a “Happy Fault”
(Felix Culpa) because it gives God more reason to incarnate the
Logos and to redeem man in the most loving way. Looking at this
allow one to explore the teachings of St. Augustine on the problem of
evil and the role of Jesus Christ to humanity.

IMPORTANCE OF THE QUESTION TO ETHICS

Happiness ultimately consists in the possession of the “highest

good” or of God himself. Augustine could not avoid discussing the
problem of evil which is one of the main hindrances to man’s quest for
true lasting happiness. The problem of evil “embrace[s] almost every
area of Augustine’s writing and perceived more and more of the
ramifications of the subject” (Evans, 1999). S. Kaye and P. Thomson
also share this view when they assert that the problem of evil disturbs
and creates a great impact on the life and mind of Augustine,
especially on how to reconcile its realities with the existence of a good
God that ignited Augustine’s philosophical and critical inquiries (Kaye-
Thomson, 2002). The subject of ethics under this lens will proceed in
the direction of elaborating on what evil is and how it may be
addressed in accordance with the writings of Augustine.

2022-2023 Module Packet for ASF 3 (ST. AUGUSTINE ON ETHICS). Center for Religious SR. JEAN ALCAIN, LMSH 07/27/2022
Studies, University of San Agustin, Iloilo City, Philippines. DR. REYNOLD B. NAVARES

Email: [email protected] | Tel. No.: 0999-997-1485 | Fax No.: (033) 337-4403

 University of San Agustin
General Luna St., 5000 Iloilo City, Philippines
www.usa.edu.ph

CENTER FOR RELIGIOUS STUDIES

Augustine prior to conversion in 386 seemed to know only two

types of evil – physical evil and moral evil. W. Mann explains:
“Augustine was aware of the existence of evil in the world- evil that
can be divided into two major classes. First, physical objects have
limitations and defects. The limitations of living things result in hardship,
pain, illness, and death. Secondly, there are people who behave
wickedly and whose souls are characterized by such vices as pride,
envy, greed, and lust” (Mann, 2001).

Augustine after conversion understood that there was also such

a thing as “original sin,” which was the very first evil act committed by
humanity. Augustine also came to understand that evil was
fundamentally an act of turning away from God, caused by pride
(superbia) – “the love of one’s own excellence” (On the Literal
Interpretation of Genesis 11.14.18) and a “desire for perverse
elevation” (The City of God 14.13). Adam and Eve’s “original sin”
according to Augustine was not only a historical event, but also a
condition (cf. On the Merits and Remission of Sins 1.9.9-1.12.15). It was
the result of their free choice to reject their dependence on God and
to opt for their own private good (Hunter, 2015).

AUGUSTINE’S PERSONAL EXPERIENCES

Augustine’s “The Confessions” gives us a glimpse into how in

touch Augustine was with past memories and how its details came to
influence the way Augustine spoke, thought, and behaved. It also
revealed in detail show Augustine personally experienced evil even in
small ways. Without the tools and theories of modern psychology, one
can already find a rich source in the Confessions on how long
forgotten latent memories that are already long buried or submerged
under the iceberg, as Sigmund Freud would describe it could still
affect the personality of a human person. One important observation

2022-2023 Module Packet for ASF 3 (ST. AUGUSTINE ON ETHICS). Center for Religious SR. JEAN ALCAIN, LMSH 07/27/2022
Studies, University of San Agustin, Iloilo City, Philippines. DR. REYNOLD B. NAVARES

Email: [email protected] | Tel. No.: 0999-997-1485 | Fax No.: (033) 337-4403

 University of San Agustin
General Luna St., 5000 Iloilo City, Philippines
www.usa.edu.ph

CENTER FOR RELIGIOUS STUDIES

that can be found in Confessions is its author’s meditations on how it

dealt with what is considered evil even during its younger years.

Augustine asserted that original sin was already present in a

person even during the period of infancy, which popular mentality
sees as a stage of sinlessness and innocence. The Confessions informs
us how- even in infancy, Augustine remembered trying to manipulate
some adults by crying unreasonably in order to get what they wanted
(cf. Conf. 1.8) and how Augustine reacted when seeing other babies
display some sense of greediness and jealousy when their mothers or
nursing guardians shared the milk of their breasts with other babies (cf.
Conf. 1.11). These were simple manifestations of evil or sin present in
man even in babies.

The presence of sin in man continues to manifest itself as a

person grows. Looking back as a young student, Augustine
remembered having a lack of discipline at school which often led
teachers to punish corporally (cf. Conf. 1.9.14; 1.14.23). Augustine also
considered the act of disobeying parents and teachers as
tantamount to the act of sinning (cf. Conf. 1.10.16).

Things got worse as an adolescent. Sexual instincts were

gradually awakened and enjoyed tickling the ears with “tall stories
that only made them itch more hotly” and hankered to satisfy the
curiosity that “inflamed Augustine’s eyes with lust for public shows
which are the games of grown-up” (Conf.1.10.16). Augustine’s friends
were accomplices sin committing such acts just like when they
convinced Augustine to steal some pears from a neighbor’s orchard
just for the fun of doing it: (Conf. 2.9).

2022-2023 Module Packet for ASF 3 (ST. AUGUSTINE ON ETHICS). Center for Religious SR. JEAN ALCAIN, LMSH 07/27/2022
Studies, University of San Agustin, Iloilo City, Philippines. DR. REYNOLD B. NAVARES

Email: [email protected] | Tel. No.: 0999-997-1485 | Fax No.: (033) 337-4403

 University of San Agustin
General Luna St., 5000 Iloilo City, Philippines
www.usa.edu.ph

CENTER FOR RELIGIOUS STUDIES

Manichean Concept of Evil

Augustine began a serious reflection on the problem of evil

during the time of associating with the Manicheans in Carthage.
Equipped with a more sophisticated-philosophical way of thinking
started to ask on the origin of evil and why it existed in the world.
Augustine also began to look at evil not so much from a purely moral
point of view but from a more philosophical perspective by asking,
Unde malum? (“Where does evil come from?”). It was the
fundamental problem the Manicheans grappled with (cf. On the
Lifestyle of the Manicheans 3.5;2.2).

The Manicheans espoused a materialistic and dualistic theory

teaching that evil was an eternal substance that coexisted with the
principle of goodness. Manicheism claimed the existence of two
coeternal principles – those of light (goodness) and of darkness (evil)
(cf. On the Lifestyle of the Manicheans 3.5; 12.27; Against the Letter of
Manichaeus called Fundamental 12.15- 13.16; 15.19; 19.21-22.23;
28.31; Against Faustus 21.1; for a brief presentation of Manichean
cosmogony, cf. Coyle, 2007; Scott, 1995; Lee, 1997).

These two were seen as in a constant state of tension and battle

(Mann, 2001). The Manicheans’ explained why evil existed in the world
is but the result of a primordial battle between the principles of light
and darkness and that man was in no way accountable or
responsible for it. Evil existed and nature itself is to be blamed not man.
The ultimate obsession of the Manicheans was the liberation of the
elements of light supposedly trapped in man’s material body (cf.
Babcock, 1994). The possession of a special kind of knowledge
(gnosis), was necessary. (Against the Letter of Manichaeus called
Fundamental 14.17). The members of the sect claimed that Mani was
doing their best to fight evil, but Mani finds facing an independent
opponent as formidable as Himself (cf. Mann, 2001).
2022-2023 Module Packet for ASF 3 (ST. AUGUSTINE ON ETHICS). Center for Religious SR. JEAN ALCAIN, LMSH 07/27/2022
Studies, University of San Agustin, Iloilo City, Philippines. DR. REYNOLD B. NAVARES

Email: [email protected] | Tel. No.: 0999-997-1485 | Fax No.: (033) 337-4403

 University of San Agustin
General Luna St., 5000 Iloilo City, Philippines
www.usa.edu.ph

CENTER FOR RELIGIOUS STUDIES

The Manichean theory appealed to the young Augustine and

their explanation about evil. Many questions remained unanswered
and when Augustine tried to clarify them with a Manichean sect
luminary named Faustus, everything ended in great disappointment.
Augustine described the man as learned and eloquent but deprived
of substance (cf. Conf. 5.6.11; 5.3.3).

A fall-out started between Augustine and the members of the

sect. Augustine departure from Carthage and transfer to Rome in the
year 383 was in part motivated by Augustine’s desire to break away
from the group-belonging to the group referred to as the “auditor”
(“hearer”) for nine years.

Evil as Privation

Augustine encountered Ambrose in Milan being a migrant in

Rome in 386. The city bishop inspired Augustine to return in reading the
Platonists (cf. Conf. 7.9.13). Scholars say that Augustine probably read
the writings of Plotinus, Porphyry, Iamblichus, Apuleius, and other
Platonic philosophers. J. P. Kenney even thinks that “Plotinus was the
only great philosopher that Augustine studied in any depth” (Kenney,
2002). Platonism did not only allow Augustine to overcome the crisis
stirred by the Academics in Rome, specifically as regards the
attainability of the truth but also freed Augustine’s mind from
Manichean materialism convincing them to seek the truth beyond
corporeal forms (cf. Conf. 7.20.26). Augustine was provided with a
different understanding of the nature of evil. The Manicheans taught
that evil was a substance, Platonism convinced Augustine that it was
but a “privation.”

“Privation” (privatio) is a technical philosophical term that

indicates not a simple lack or defect but the absence of something
2022-2023 Module Packet for ASF 3 (ST. AUGUSTINE ON ETHICS). Center for Religious SR. JEAN ALCAIN, LMSH 07/27/2022
Studies, University of San Agustin, Iloilo City, Philippines. DR. REYNOLD B. NAVARES

Email: [email protected] | Tel. No.: 0999-997-1485 | Fax No.: (033) 337-4403

 University of San Agustin
General Luna St., 5000 Iloilo City, Philippines
www.usa.edu.ph

CENTER FOR RELIGIOUS STUDIES

that is expected to be present (cf. Conf. 3.7.12). It is the absence of

the good in a “substance” (substantia) (cf. Schäfer, 2000) or it is
something that exists in itself which is supposed to be ontologically
“good”. It is in a state of actuality and not sheer potentiality and
possesses measure (mensura), form (forma, species), and order (ordo)
(cf. On the Nature of the Good 3; On Free Will 2.20.54; Against
Secundinus, the Manichean 17; Williams, 1999; Mann, 2001; Schäfer,
2000). Evil is not a “substance” but a mere “privation,” evil cannot exist
in itself (cf. Schäfer, 2000), but needs some “substance,” as it were, to
dwell in (cf. On the Lifestyle of the Catholic Church 2.5.7;
Brachtendorf, 2000; Cress, 2010).

Everything that exists per se is ontologically “good” (cf. cf. Conf.

7.12.18; On Free Will 3.13). Without excluding some possible influence
of Platonism, Augustine must have interpreted this in the light of the
Christian teaching about the goodness of creation (cf. Brachtendorf,
2000; Burt, 1999). Everything created by God is supposed to be good,
and yet the African bishop could not deny the fact that evil exists in
some way. It must be only a “privation” attributable not to the
Creator, but to the intrinsic limitation of creatures (cf. Springsted,
1998). God alone is infinitely good and has no evil in Himself. But the
creatures were created with limitations, and this leaves space for evil,
which in turn can manifest itself in many ways in the world including in
the field of ethics.

2022-2023 Module Packet for ASF 3 (ST. AUGUSTINE ON ETHICS). Center for Religious SR. JEAN ALCAIN, LMSH 07/27/2022
Studies, University of San Agustin, Iloilo City, Philippines. DR. REYNOLD B. NAVARES

Email: [email protected] | Tel. No.: 0999-997-1485 | Fax No.: (033) 337-4403

 University of San Agustin
General Luna St., 5000 Iloilo City, Philippines
www.usa.edu.ph

CENTER FOR RELIGIOUS STUDIES

MODULE 2: Activity 2C – SOME ANTHROPOLOGICAL PRESUPPOSITIONS

ABOUT MAN (Alvarez & Cabahug, 2021)

Please read the script below.

1. HYLEMORPHIC THEORY ABOUT THE HUMAN PERSON

Every ethical theory presupposes certain anthropology or vision

of man. Augustine also had his own idea of man. The way Augustine
looked at man ranged from a purely philosophical one to a very
religious one, or oftentimes the combination of the two. The influence
of ancient philosophies and Augustine’s newly embraced Christian
faith is not hard to discern. First and foremost, Augustine espoused a
hylemorphic idea of man, that man is composed of both body
(“matter” or hyle in Greek) and soul (“form” or morphe in Greek) (cf.
The City of God 5.11; 19.3). Some scholars even speak of a three-fold
composition of man, further dividing his non- bodily part into soul and
spirit (mind). Thus, man would be composed of a body, a soul, and a
spirit (mind) (cf. On the Gospel of John 26.2). But, as P. Burnell would
say, this is “a mere ecclesiastical relic in Augustine’s thought” (Burnell,
2005). “Augustine’s fundamental division of the created order is into
the spiritual and the corporeal, metaphysically, therefore, Augustine
is without question a dualist” (ibid.).

The relationship between the body and soul is compared to that

of a “sweet marriage” (dulce consortium) (cf. Letter 140). Just as
married man and woman take care of each other, so must the soul
take care of the body (cf. Hunter, 2015). This immediately sets him
apart from other thinkers who had a negative view of the human
body, considering it, for example, as evil in itself and as something to
be mortified and punished. The Manicheans held such a view. Others
asserted that the true man is only the soul which must be liberated

2022-2023 Module Packet for ASF 3 (ST. AUGUSTINE ON ETHICS). Center for Religious SR. JEAN ALCAIN, LMSH 07/27/2022
Studies, University of San Agustin, Iloilo City, Philippines. DR. REYNOLD B. NAVARES

Email: [email protected] | Tel. No.: 0999-997-1485 | Fax No.: (033) 337-4403

 University of San Agustin
General Luna St., 5000 Iloilo City, Philippines
www.usa.edu.ph

CENTER FOR RELIGIOUS STUDIES

from its state of imprisonment in the human body. This is typical of the
Neoplatonists.

2. THE HUMAN BODY AND ITS SENSES

Man’s possessing a body endowed with five senses – those of

sight, hearing, taste, smell, and touch – is the very first observable
characteristic of man in the world. Through such senses man gets into
contact with the material reality surrounding him – man can see, hear,
smell, touch and even taste it. It is also through the senses that man
gains knowledge of the outside world. Augustinian epistemology or
theory of knowledge explains the complex process by which material
things in the world are perceived by the senses and how
corresponding images of them are formed in the human mind
(specifically in memory). From there, a higher level of abstraction
takes place, making it possible for man to understand the nature of
things and to judge them (cf. On the Trinity 9.6.9; 9.6.11; 9.11.16).

Augustine speaks of three levels of knowledge or “vision” –

namely, “corporeal,” “spiritual,” and “intellectual” (cf. On the Literal
Interpretation of Genesis 12.6.15; 12.7.16; 12.11.22). The first level
requires the actual presence to the bodily senses of a perceptible
object; the second level relies on the corresponding images,
impressions, or likenesses that such an object has produced in the
memory – hence, the object of perception need not be present to
the bodily senses; and the third level concerns abstract realities,
meaning, judgment, etc. where true understanding takes place.

Man is not just a material body; man, also possesses a soul

capable of thinking, reasoning out and willing (cf. The City of God
5.11). It is such rational capacity that makes man a “likeness of God”
(The City of God 13.24). Sometimes under the influence of Plato, the
Bishop of Hippo would consider the soul as “the better part of man”
2022-2023 Module Packet for ASF 3 (ST. AUGUSTINE ON ETHICS). Center for Religious SR. JEAN ALCAIN, LMSH 07/27/2022
Studies, University of San Agustin, Iloilo City, Philippines. DR. REYNOLD B. NAVARES

Email: [email protected] | Tel. No.: 0999-997-1485 | Fax No.: (033) 337-4403

 University of San Agustin
General Luna St., 5000 Iloilo City, Philippines
www.usa.edu.ph

CENTER FOR RELIGIOUS STUDIES

and the body as man’s “lower part” (The City of God 13.24). He says:
“in the order of nature, the soul is unquestionably ranked above the
body” (The City of God 14.23; 19.3). The soul is also called “the inner
man” while the body is “the outer man” (The City of God 13.24).
Aristotle made a distinction among the three degrees or types of soul
responsible for life, sensibility and mind respectively (The City of God
7.23;7.29).

3. THE HUMAN SOUL AND ITS FACULTIES

The human soul has certain faculties or powers. Augustine

elaborates on three of such faculties – namely, reason (intellect), will
and memory (cf. The City of God 22.24; On the Trinity 10.11.17- 18:
Conf. 10; Burnell: 55ff.). In Augustine’s Confessions book 10, Augustine
presents a detailed discussion of human memory. It is compared to “a
huge repository with secret and unimaginable caverns” (Conf.
10.8.13) and to “a stomach chews the cud” (Conf. 10.14.22). It
provides man with materials which uses to ruminate, (like images,
imageless thoughts, emotions, etc.). It is memory that provides the
reason and the will the materials they need for their respective
functions. Man can remember. The will is attracted towards things
perceived as good or desirable or flees from things perceived as evil
and undesirable (cf. Medieval concept of “estimative sense”). With
the help of memory, human reason is provided with information it
needs to understand things, their nature, characteristics, etc., and is
made capable of acquiring knowledge and arriving at the truth. For
Augustine, man is essentially “a rational substance consisting of soul
and body” (cf. On The Trinity 15.7.11; also see Duffy, 1999).
Unlike the Platonists and the Manicheans, Augustine did not see
the human body as intrinsically evil (cf. On the Nature of the Good
18). Augustine asserted that “anyone who wishes to separate the
body from human nature is foolish” (On the Soul and its Origin 4.2.3).
Bodily desires are also not to be suppressed but rather regulated by
2022-2023 Module Packet for ASF 3 (ST. AUGUSTINE ON ETHICS). Center for Religious SR. JEAN ALCAIN, LMSH 07/27/2022
Studies, University of San Agustin, Iloilo City, Philippines. DR. REYNOLD B. NAVARES

Email: [email protected] | Tel. No.: 0999-997-1485 | Fax No.: (033) 337-4403

 University of San Agustin
General Luna St., 5000 Iloilo City, Philippines
www.usa.edu.ph

CENTER FOR RELIGIOUS STUDIES

human reason. These ideas certainly have significant implications in

the field of ethics.

4. HUMANITY’S SPECIAL PLACE IN THE ORDER OF CREATION

Augustine sees man as having been created to God’s image

and likeness (Gen 1:26). The Alexandrians differentiate between
“image” and “likeness” saying that “image” refers to the sempiternal,
originally a pre-creational archetypal form of a human being in the
thought of God, while “likeness” refers to the degree of similarity
between a created human being and God (cf. Burnell, 2005).
Following the Alexandrian tradition, the African bishop distinguishes
between “image” and “likeness” saying that while all created things
bear certain likeness with the Creator (for example, by demonstrating
in varying degrees the divine attributes of goodness, beauty, order,
etc.: cf. O’Donnell, 1994), only man bears God’s image (imago Dei)
the “image of God’s image” or of Christ himself.

Augustine does not only possess rationality and the capacity to

love, but also tends naturally toward God whose image man bears.
“All such images strive to be that in whose likeness they are made”
(Against the Academics 3.17.39). The present world man experiences
restlessness, which will end only when man finally returns to the
Creator, or as the Confessions beautifully put it: “You have made us
for yourself, and our heart is restless until it rests in you” (Conf. 1.1). Man
is likewise destined to be raised back to life both body and soul at the
end of time.

Man’s being in possession of a body and a rational soul puts man

in a special place in the order of creation. Man finds himself in the
middle of the spiritual and the material realms (cf. Burnell, 2005).
Human persons are implanted by their Creator with the desire to strive
for a better degree of existence. Man is called to continuously
2022-2023 Module Packet for ASF 3 (ST. AUGUSTINE ON ETHICS). Center for Religious SR. JEAN ALCAIN, LMSH 07/27/2022
Studies, University of San Agustin, Iloilo City, Philippines. DR. REYNOLD B. NAVARES

Email: [email protected] | Tel. No.: 0999-997-1485 | Fax No.: (033) 337-4403

 University of San Agustin
General Luna St., 5000 Iloilo City, Philippines
www.usa.edu.ph

CENTER FOR RELIGIOUS STUDIES

improve themselves and to transform the world they live in their way
of participating in God’s continuous act of creation.

Augustine espousing a noble vision of man underscores man’s

fallen state. Original sin impaired man’s ability both to think and to will
(Mann, 2001). God endowed man with free will or the capacity to
choose and decide for himself/herself. Man, initially enjoyed true
freedom (libertas) in Paradise as man focused only on God and on
the execution of God’s will.

The man committed “original sin,” which resulted in

compromising man’s freedom (libertas), turning it into what is
commonly termed as “free will” (liberum arbitrium) (cf. Enchiridion: 32;
Holtzen, 2000). Free will is a divided will, not the intent, and focused
only on what is good (Kent, 2001). The man may also choose and will
what is evil. This is the kind of free will that man possesses in the present
life. Man must constantly decide and choose between good and evil.

The Holy Mother Church teaches at the Second Vatican Council

that someone “cannot fully find himself except through a sincere gift
of himself.”1 This is why we are called by our Lord to give. To repeat
the words of St. John Paul II, “It is Jesus that you seek when you dream
of happiness; He is waiting for you when nothing else you find satisfies
you; He is the beauty to which you are so attracted; it is He who
provoked you with that thirst for fullness that will not let you settle for
compromise; it is He who urges you to shed the masks of a false life; it
is He who reads in your heart your most genuine choices, the choices

1
Cf. Vatican Council II. (1965). Gaudium et Spes. # 24.
2022-2023 Module Packet for ASF 3 (ST. AUGUSTINE ON ETHICS). Center for Religious SR. JEAN ALCAIN, LMSH 07/27/2022
Studies, University of San Agustin, Iloilo City, Philippines. DR. REYNOLD B. NAVARES

Email: [email protected] | Tel. No.: 0999-997-1485 | Fax No.: (033) 337-4403

 University of San Agustin
General Luna St., 5000 Iloilo City, Philippines
www.usa.edu.ph

CENTER FOR RELIGIOUS STUDIES

that others try to stifle.”2 It is Jesus who is calling you to be holy because
it is with him you will find the most joy in this world and the next.

MODULE 2. ASSESSMENT TASK 1: POEM COMPOSITION “Who Am I”

Compose a poem about “Who am I” as a person and post in NEO-

LMS given the following rubrics:

Writing Process/Effort 4 pts.

Title 4 pts.
Neatness 4 pts.
Style 4 pts.
Vocabulary 4 pts.
Total Score 20 pts.

Needs
Excellent Good Satisfactory
CATEGORY Improvement
(4 points) (3 points) (2 points)
(1 point)
THE WRITING Student Student Student Student
PROCESS/ devoted a lot devoted devoted devoted little
EFFORT of time and adequate time some time time and
effort to the and effort to and effort effort to the
writing process the writing to the writing
and worked process and writing process. It
hard to make worked to get process but appears that
the poem a the job done. was not the student
good read. The poem may very does not care
thorough. about the

2
Cf. Pope John Paul II. (2000).Address Message to the World Youth Day.
2022-2023 Module Packet for ASF 3 (ST. AUGUSTINE ON ETHICS). Center for Religious SR. JEAN ALCAIN, LMSH 07/27/2022
Studies, University of San Agustin, Iloilo City, Philippines. DR. REYNOLD B. NAVARES

Email: [email protected] | Tel. No.: 0999-997-1485 | Fax No.: (033) 337-4403

 University of San Agustin
General Luna St., 5000 Iloilo City, Philippines
www.usa.edu.ph

CENTER FOR RELIGIOUS STUDIES

The poem has have one or Does assignment.

no errors. two errors. enough to The poem has
get by. many errors.
There are
several
errors.
TITLE The poem has The poem has a The poem The poem has
a title that title that relates has a title no title
clearly relates to the poem
to the poem
and adds
interest to the
theme or
message of the
poem
NEATNESS The final draft The final draft of The final The final draft
of the poem is the poem is draft of the is not neat or
readable, readable, neat poem is attractive. It
clean, neat and attractive. readable looks like the
and attractive. It may have and some student just
It is free of one or two of the wanted to get
erasures and erasures, but pages are it done and
crossed-out they are not attractive. It didn’t care
words. It looks distracting. It looks like what it looked
like the author looks like the parts of it like.
took great author took might have
pride in it. some pride in it. been done
in a hurry.
STYLE The poem is The poem is The poem is The poem
written with a written with a written lacks style,
great sense of defined with somewhat and the
style. The style. Thoughts with style. thoughts did
poem has been are clear to Thoughts not come out

2022-2023 Module Packet for ASF 3 (ST. AUGUSTINE ON ETHICS). Center for Religious SR. JEAN ALCAIN, LMSH 07/27/2022
Studies, University of San Agustin, Iloilo City, Philippines. DR. REYNOLD B. NAVARES

Email: [email protected] | Tel. No.: 0999-997-1485 | Fax No.: (033) 337-4403

 University of San Agustin
General Luna St., 5000 Iloilo City, Philippines
www.usa.edu.ph

CENTER FOR RELIGIOUS STUDIES

well thought read and are clear to clearly on

out and makes understandable a degree. paper.
sense to the .
reader.
VOCABULARY The poem is The poem The poem The poem
filled with includes many includes lacks
descriptive descriptive some description
vocabulary elements and is descriptive and does not
that appeals to appealing. words and allow the
the reader. phrases. reader to
visualize the
poem.

MODULE 2. ASSESSMENT TASK 2: QUIZ

(Teacher has to prepare the questions. Options to do such as using

gamification, quiz dashboard provided by NEO-LMS, etc.).

MODULE 2. CONCLUSION

The human person as a created being is the highest and most

loved creation of God. Evil comes as a privation of something that is
supposed to be present, thus the absence of goodness. Christ came
to reinstate human beings from their fallen state. The exploration of
the human body comes to have a deeper understanding of the
human person’s nature and further considers the understanding of the
human soul and its place in creation.

2022-2023 Module Packet for ASF 3 (ST. AUGUSTINE ON ETHICS). Center for Religious SR. JEAN ALCAIN, LMSH 07/27/2022
Studies, University of San Agustin, Iloilo City, Philippines. DR. REYNOLD B. NAVARES

Email: [email protected] | Tel. No.: 0999-997-1485 | Fax No.: (033) 337-4403

 University of San Agustin
General Luna St., 5000 Iloilo City, Philippines
www.usa.edu.ph

CENTER FOR RELIGIOUS STUDIES

MODULE 2: CLOSING PRAYER

Closing Prayer: Please pray the Official Prayer after Class.

Leader: Our help is in the name of the Lord,

All: Who made heaven and earth.
Leader: Let us pray.
All: God, the desire of every human heart, you
moved Saint Augustine to seek restlessly for truth
and peace. Touch our hearts with his burning
desire for wisdom, for the Word made flesh. We
Leader: ask this through Christ, our Lord. Amen.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son, and to
All: the Holy Spirit.
As it was in the beginning, is now, and will be
forever. Amen.

MODULE 2. REFERENCES:

 Alvarez, Czar Emmanuel. “Augustine on Interreligious Dialogue.”

Quaerens. Vol. 14. No. 2 (December 2019): 95-116.
 Alvarez, Fr. Czar Emmanuel V., OSA and Cabahug, Fr. Reo G.,
OSA. (2021). Augustinian Ethics. ReSt 1: 72-117.
 Burnell, P. The Augustinian Person. The Catholic University of
America Press 2005.

2022-2023 Module Packet for ASF 3 (ST. AUGUSTINE ON ETHICS). Center for Religious SR. JEAN ALCAIN, LMSH 07/27/2022
Studies, University of San Agustin, Iloilo City, Philippines. DR. REYNOLD B. NAVARES

Email: [email protected] | Tel. No.: 0999-997-1485 | Fax No.: (033) 337-4403

 University of San Agustin
General Luna St., 5000 Iloilo City, Philippines
www.usa.edu.ph

CENTER FOR RELIGIOUS STUDIES

 Cress, D. A. “Augustine’s Privation Account of Evil.” Augustinian

Studies 20 (1989): 109-128.
 Duffy, S. “Anthropology” in Augustine through the Ages. An
Encyclopedia. Ed. Allan Fitzgerald. William Eerdmans Publishing
1999: 24-31.
 Evans, G. R. “Evil” in Augustine through the Ages. An
Encyclopedia. Ed. Allan Fitzgerald. William Eerdmans Publishing
1999: 340-344.
 Hunter, D. “Augustine on the Body” in A Companion to
Augustine. Ed. Mark Vessey. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. 2015.
 Kenney, J. P. “Augustine’s Inner Self.” Augustinian Studies 33:1
(2002): 79-90.
 Mann, W. “Augustine on Evil and Original Sin” in The Cambridge
Companion to Augustine.
 Eds. Eleonore Stump and Norman Kretzmann. Cambridge
University Press 2001.
 The Jerusalem Bible. (2005). Philippines: Philippine Bible Society.

2022-2023 Module Packet for ASF 3 (ST. AUGUSTINE ON ETHICS). Center for Religious SR. JEAN ALCAIN, LMSH 07/27/2022
Studies, University of San Agustin, Iloilo City, Philippines. DR. REYNOLD B. NAVARES

Email: [email protected] | Tel. No.: 0999-997-1485 | Fax No.: (033) 337-4403

01 02 03
HUMANITY’S QUEST THE NATURE OF SOME
FOR HAPPINESS THE HUMAN ANTHROPOLOGICAL
PERSON PRESUPPOSITIONS
ABOUT THE HUMAN
PERSON
Both members of the dyad
must submit the same
summary of the sharing in
the NEO submission
venue.
“

”
“

”
 • some led him to
Friends the wrong path

Sensual • He had a mistress

and fathered
Desires Adeodatus

•Augustine
Wealth did not
and Fame find
happiness
 Human Sexual Material wealth Fame, or
friendship gratification “human vanity”
“

”
Plato Aristotle
•Use the intellect to control the lower •Observe the “golden mean” avoiding all
faculties extremes

Stoics (Seneca and Marcus Aurelius) Epicureans (Epicurus)

•Whoever understands that we don’t need •Reflect on the things that make you happy
much to be happy is happy (in a physical sense) and be content with
•Life is misery; accepting this leads to these.
happiness

Cynics (Antisthenes)
•“back-to-nature” free from wants, passions
and societal conventions
Hylē (matter) Morphē
- body (form) - spirit

Man
1) Corporeal 2) Spiritual 3) Intellectual

• Sense • Impression • Meaning,

Perception Judgement
 Reason

Will

Memory
Soul
“

”
 University of San Agustin
General Luna St., 5000 Iloilo City, Philippines
www.usa.edu.ph

CENTER FOR RELIGIOUS STUDIES

MODULE 3: HUMAN FREE WILL AND DIVINE GRACE

MODULE 3: OPENING PRAYER

INSTRUCTION: IF YOU ARE READY, YOU CAN NOW START WITH MODULE 3.

Opening Prayer: As we start with this lesson, I invite you

to pray the Official Prayer before class.

Leader: When we live in unity,

All: How good and how pleasant it is.
Leader: Pray for us, Holy Father Augustine,
All: That we may dwell together in peace.
Leader: Let us pray,
All: God our Father, Your Son promised to be
present in the midst of all who come together in
His name. Help us to recognize His presence
among us and experience in our hearts the
abundance of Your grace, Your mercy, and
Your peace, in truth and in love. We ask this,
through Christ our Lord. Amen.

2022-2023 Module Packet for ASF 3 (ST. AUGUSTINE ON ETHICS). Center for Religious SR. JEAN ALCAIN, LMSH 07/27/2022
Studies, University of San Agustin, Iloilo City, Philippines. DR. REYNOLD B. NAVARES

Email: [email protected] | Tel. No.: 0999-997-1485 | Fax No.: (033) 337-4403

 University of San Agustin
General Luna St., 5000 Iloilo City, Philippines
www.usa.edu.ph

CENTER FOR RELIGIOUS STUDIES

A GRACE-FILLED DAY! WELCOME TO MODULE 3.

This module provides four topics that would help us reflect, illustrate,
and analyze the Augustinian-Christian perspectives of a human
person who is responsibly free, act spontaneously, accordingly, and
expressively based on one’s own consent, intellect, and will. This
includes distinction between voluntas recta and voluntas perversa,
Pelagian controversy as well as the role of the Law in the Old
Testament.

Consultation hours:
Phone/messenger:
Virtual time:

MODULE 3: LEARNING OBJECTIVES

By the end of Module 3, students will be able to:

1. establish the relationship between exercising human free will

and the need for God’s grace;
2. appreciate the value of free will as a gift from God;
3. develop a habit of entrusting and surrendering themselves to
God’s will.

2022-2023 Module Packet for ASF 3 (ST. AUGUSTINE ON ETHICS). Center for Religious SR. JEAN ALCAIN, LMSH 07/27/2022
Studies, University of San Agustin, Iloilo City, Philippines. DR. REYNOLD B. NAVARES

Email: [email protected] | Tel. No.: 0999-997-1485 | Fax No.: (033) 337-4403

 University of San Agustin
General Luna St., 5000 Iloilo City, Philippines
www.usa.edu.ph

CENTER FOR RELIGIOUS STUDIES

MODULE 3: COURSE CONTENTS

Below is the Schedule for Module 3.

TIME TO
ACTIVITY DESCRIPTION OVERVIEW
COMPLETE
Opening Prayer 3 minutes

Learning Objectives 2 minutes

1 Triad Group Pyramid Ranking 10 minutes

Topic 1: DISTINCTION BETWEEN
2A VOLUNTAS RECTA AND VOLUNTAS 20 minutes
PERVERSA
2B Topic 2: PELAGIAN CONTROVERSY 20 minutes
Topic 3: ROLE OF THE LAW IN THE
2C 20 minutes
OLD TESTAMENT
Assessment Task 1: Think & Reflect 10 minutes

Assessment Task 2: Quiz 10 minutes

Conclusion 3 minutes

Closing Prayer 2 minutes

References

2022-2023 Module Packet for ASF 3 (ST. AUGUSTINE ON ETHICS). Center for Religious SR. JEAN ALCAIN, LMSH 07/27/2022
Studies, University of San Agustin, Iloilo City, Philippines. DR. REYNOLD B. NAVARES

Email: [email protected] | Tel. No.: 0999-997-1485 | Fax No.: (033) 337-4403

 University of San Agustin
General Luna St., 5000 Iloilo City, Philippines
www.usa.edu.ph

CENTER FOR RELIGIOUS STUDIES

MODULE 3. Activity 1 – TRIAD GROUP PYRAMID RANKING

Kindly answer the following instructions and answer the question given
then follow the mechanics below:

Question: If you were to hierarchically arrange (as in a pyramid) the

things which are important to you or which you consider as good,
desirable, beneficial, etc., what would be on your top list and which
ones would be on the lowest rank?

Score: 15 points

1. Students place their first priority at the top, followed by a second

place in the middle, then the lowest priority at the bottom. This
forms pyramid shape.
2. Students should strive for a consensus among themselves. This
may involve various discussions on the order of cards involving
justification.
3. See the sample Pyramid Ranking template below. Post your
answer to the NEO-LMS.

2022-2023 Module Packet for ASF 3 (ST. AUGUSTINE ON ETHICS). Center for Religious SR. JEAN ALCAIN, LMSH 07/27/2022
Studies, University of San Agustin, Iloilo City, Philippines. DR. REYNOLD B. NAVARES

Email: [email protected] | Tel. No.: 0999-997-1485 | Fax No.: (033) 337-4403

 University of San Agustin
General Luna St., 5000 Iloilo City, Philippines
www.usa.edu.ph

CENTER FOR RELIGIOUS STUDIES

Activity 1: PYRAMID RANKING TEMPLATE

Triad Group Members: _____________________________________________

SHORT DEEPENING LEADING TO THE LECTURE/DISCUSSION PROPER:

(The teacher can choose any of these options to do lecture/

discussion such as ppt/pdf presentation, pre-recorded lecture,
summary-overview processing, NEO-LMS tools, interactive apps such
as slido, poll everywhere, gamification, etc.)

2022-2023 Module Packet for ASF 3 (ST. AUGUSTINE ON ETHICS). Center for Religious SR. JEAN ALCAIN, LMSH 07/27/2022
Studies, University of San Agustin, Iloilo City, Philippines. DR. REYNOLD B. NAVARES

Email: [email protected] | Tel. No.: 0999-997-1485 | Fax No.: (033) 337-4403

 University of San Agustin
General Luna St., 5000 Iloilo City, Philippines
www.usa.edu.ph

CENTER FOR RELIGIOUS STUDIES

MODULE 3: Activity 2A –DISTINCTION BETWEEN VOLUNTAS RECTA AND

VOLUNTAS PERVERSA (Alvarez & Cabahug, 2021)

Please read the script below.

The existence of human free will is one of the essential

foundations of Augustinian ethics. It is necessary for humans to be
morally responsible and for them to avoid implicating God as the
author of sin (Holtzen, 2000). Pagans held other things and entities as
responsible for evil in the world – fate (destiny), gods and goddesses,
forces of nature, and so forth – instead of accepting any share
whatsoever in the responsibility. This is unacceptable for a Christian
thinker like Augustine, who had to defend God from any impious
accusations and demonstrate human moral responsibility. Evil must be
attributed to the wrong exercise of human freedom.

1. AUGUSTINE’S UNDERSTANDING OF FREEWILL

Free will had been discussed by ancient philosophers long

before Augustine’s time (cf. Van Riel, 2007). Augustine gave a
Christian counterpart interpreting it in relation to the Christian notion
of evil. Augustine thinks that an evil act or a bad choice is committed
when a man chooses and opts to do something that is evil in itself but
in choosing what appears as a “lesser good.” It is the abandonment
of a higher good for the sake of an inferior good (On the Nature of
the Good 34: Mann, 2001). Augustine states that: “Every tree that God
planted in paradise was good. Man did not desire anything evil by
nature but when the man touched the forbidden tree-man departed
was permissible, thus, committing an act that was evil.

2022-2023 Module Packet for ASF 3 (ST. AUGUSTINE ON ETHICS). Center for Religious SR. JEAN ALCAIN, LMSH 07/27/2022
Studies, University of San Agustin, Iloilo City, Philippines. DR. REYNOLD B. NAVARES

Email: [email protected] | Tel. No.: 0999-997-1485 | Fax No.: (033) 337-4403

 University of San Agustin
General Luna St., 5000 Iloilo City, Philippines
www.usa.edu.ph

CENTER FOR RELIGIOUS STUDIES

The reason for the prohibition was to show that the rational soul
is not its own power but ought to be subject to God and must guard
the order of its salvation by obedience, was corrupted by
disobedience. God called the tree… the Tree of the Knowledge of
Good and Evil, because anyone who touched it… would discover the
penalty of sin, and so be able to distinguish between the good
obedience and the evil of disobedience” (On the Nature of the Good
34-35). Evil is an act of turning away from God, the summum bonum
(Mann, 2001). Referring here to moral and spiritual evil, which is
attributable to the exercise of human free will.

2. AUGUSTINE’S CLASSIFICATION OF FREEWILL

There are two types of “will” – a correct one (voluntas recta) and an
erroneous one (voluntas perversa) (cf. The City of God 14.6; Kent,
2001), or the good will (bona voluntas) and the evil will (mala voluntas)
(cf. On Free Will 15.31). The former refers to the human will when it is
properly directed – that is, focused on what is intrinsically good, while
the latter refers to the human will when it is focused on something
which turns out to be wrong even when it appears as good (= an
“apparent good”). The former is sometimes identified with “good
love,” and the latter with “perverted love.” “A rightly directed will is
love in a good sense and a perverted will is love in a bad sense” (The
City of God 14.7). Ancient Greek philosophers (like Socrates) held that
no man desires evil or does something wrong knowingly. This cannot
be the proper object of the human will, which naturally tends only
towards what it perceives as good, desirable, beneficial, etc. Evil is
perceived as good due to error in judgment. In this case, one ends up
doing what is evil in itself thinking that one is doing something good.

Identifying erroneous or perverted will with wrong love, Augustine

admits the possibility that man may love something that is evil just as

2022-2023 Module Packet for ASF 3 (ST. AUGUSTINE ON ETHICS). Center for Religious SR. JEAN ALCAIN, LMSH 07/27/2022
Studies, University of San Agustin, Iloilo City, Philippines. DR. REYNOLD B. NAVARES

Email: [email protected] | Tel. No.: 0999-997-1485 | Fax No.: (033) 337-4403

 University of San Agustin
General Luna St., 5000 Iloilo City, Philippines
www.usa.edu.ph

CENTER FOR RELIGIOUS STUDIES

one may also will to do something that is not good in itself. Augustine
speaks of different objects of love and teaches us to focus as much
as possible only on what is intrinsically good.

A hierarchy of goods exists. The objects of our desire are not of equal
weight or importance. Material goods are inferior to spiritual goods,
and even among spiritual goods, God occupies the highest place. In
Augustine’s autobiography, listed down some of the inferior goods
that man usually chooses in place of higher goods. We have worldly
honor, glory, beauty, wealth, etc., to which certain vices correspond
(cf. Conf. 2.13). Man is always subject to error in judgment. Man needs
grace or divine assistance so that man’s fallen will may be healed and
properly guided.

Augustine distinguishes between “will” as the power of the soul to do

something (voluntas) and the “act of choosing” between alternative
courses of action (liberum arbitrium) (cf. On the Merits and Forgiveness
of Sins 2.67; The City of God 5.10). In this case, the latter would refer to
the actual exercise of the former. The “will” is one of the natural
faculties of the human soul (along with reason or the intellect and
memory), but man may end up wishing or wanting to do something
without actually willing or choosing to do something about it.

“Voluntas comes closer to wish than it does to choose” (Djuth, 1999).

It is only when the ability or the power of doing something is added to
volition that action can occur (cf. Conf. 8.8.9). Voluntas and liberum
arbitrium must come together – posse and velle are presupposed by
facere or action (cf. On the Spirit and the Letter 31.53). “Our wills are
ours and it is our wills that affect all that we do by willing, which would
not have happened if one had not willed” (The City of God 5.10).
Divided will is the result of man’s primordial Fall – that of Adam (The
City of God 14.12). In the beginning, human will be intact prior to the

2022-2023 Module Packet for ASF 3 (ST. AUGUSTINE ON ETHICS). Center for Religious SR. JEAN ALCAIN, LMSH 07/27/2022
Studies, University of San Agustin, Iloilo City, Philippines. DR. REYNOLD B. NAVARES

Email: [email protected] | Tel. No.: 0999-997-1485 | Fax No.: (033) 337-4403

 University of San Agustin
General Luna St., 5000 Iloilo City, Philippines
www.usa.edu.ph

CENTER FOR RELIGIOUS STUDIES

violation of God’s prohibition to eat of the fruit of “the tree of

knowledge of good and evil” (Gen 2:17).

MODULE 3. ASSESSMENT TASK 1

THINK & REFLECT. Reflect and answer the following three questions
briefly and then post it in NEO-LMS during the asynchronous class.

Total Score: 15 points.

1. Can you name instances when you ended up doing

something bad thinking that it was good?
2. What do you think must one do in order to avoid error in
judgment in exercising his or her free will?
3. How can we reconcile our exercise of free will and our need
for God’s grace at the same time? Is there any contradiction
involved here? Are they irreconcilable?

MODULE 3: Activity 2B – PELAGIAN CONTROVERSY (Alvarez &

Cabahug, 2021)

Please read the script below.

1. Conflicting views between Augustine & Pelagians on grace

The relationship between human will and divine grace was one
of the main points of debate between Augustine and the Pelagians
(cf. Kent, 2001; The main points of disagreement between Augustine
and the Pelagians, cf. Bonner, 1992). They both spoke of grace but
had two very different understandings of it. For the Pelagians, grace
was intrinsic to human nature. When God created man, God
2022-2023 Module Packet for ASF 3 (ST. AUGUSTINE ON ETHICS). Center for Religious SR. JEAN ALCAIN, LMSH 07/27/2022
Studies, University of San Agustin, Iloilo City, Philippines. DR. REYNOLD B. NAVARES

Email: [email protected] | Tel. No.: 0999-997-1485 | Fax No.: (033) 337-4403

 University of San Agustin
General Luna St., 5000 Iloilo City, Philippines
www.usa.edu.ph

CENTER FOR RELIGIOUS STUDIES

endowed him with everything that man needed in order to live a

good, virtuous, holy and perfect life. The “original sin” in no way
affected the rest of humanity, but only Adam and Eve, who then
provided us with a bad example (Kent, 2001; cf. Ellingsen, 2005). To
the Pelagian every single man was supposed to possess a perfect,
uncompromised nature at the moment of man’s creation – the same
condition before Adam’s fall (ibid.). There was no need for infant
baptism for there was no sin to wash away (TeSelle, 1999). As to
whether one could be saved or not depended solely on how one
used free will. God is just and “neither commands the impossible nor
condemns what is unavoidable nor violates human freedom” (TeSelle,
1999).

2. Augustine’s Exposition on grace

Augustine considered grace as extrinsic to human nature. It was

supposed to come from God from the outside and transform the
human will the moment one received it. Some would describe grace
as “participation in the divine nature” or “participation in the divine
life” (Wilson-Kastner, 1976). The Bishop of Hippo underscores the
primacy of grace over human free will. Man, indeed, has been
endowed by God with free will (The City of God 5.7), but not all credits
are to be attributed to man’s personal efforts and natural capacities
if ever one succeeds in living a virtuous life and turning out to be holy.
Free will should not be seen as independent of divine grace (Stump,
2001), and grace is not to be understood only in terms of natural
endowments, but also as a help coming from God and given to man
to enable man to exercise the “will” properly (cf. 1Cor 4:7; Jn 15:5).

Augustine avers that “anything good in a human person

including any goodness in the will is a gift of God” (Stump, 2001; cf.
On Free Will 2.19.50). Man is able to exercise free “will” well for the
good only if God produces such capacity in man or operates in
2022-2023 Module Packet for ASF 3 (ST. AUGUSTINE ON ETHICS). Center for Religious SR. JEAN ALCAIN, LMSH 07/27/2022
Studies, University of San Agustin, Iloilo City, Philippines. DR. REYNOLD B. NAVARES

Email: [email protected] | Tel. No.: 0999-997-1485 | Fax No.: (033) 337-4403

 University of San Agustin
General Luna St., 5000 Iloilo City, Philippines
www.usa.edu.ph

CENTER FOR RELIGIOUS STUDIES

producing it (cf. On Free Will 3.18.51). Human free will needs the
“therapy of grace” (Holtzen, 2000). “Only grace provides the therapy
that heals the will from the disease of sin and empowers it to act out
of love” (Holtzen, 2000).

MODULE 3: Activity 2C – ROLE OF THE LAW IN THE OLD TESTAMENT

(Alvarez & Cabahug, 2021)

Please read the script below.

1. Augustine’s on the Role of the Law in the Old Testament

Augustine said that the role of the laws in the Old Testament was
given to reveal to the people of God a fuller knowledge of what sin
was and to develop in them the rightful guilt for committing it. The holy
laws teach individuals to abhor sin, but they do not give them the
capacity to avoid it. But with careful meditation on these laws, one is
prepared for conversion (Hildebrand, 2010). It is not difficult to access
the fact that the law teaches us to have a distaste for sin with the
element of free choice to do it, one no longer is excused from
committing it. It even causes sin to abound (Hildebrand, 2010; Daley,
2010).

The law was given not to make us feel guiltier, but to enable us
to acknowledge our weaknesses and to seek refuge and guidance in
God (Daley, 2010). If we submit ourselves to God, the Holy Spirit would
give man the ability to observe the law and freely choose and love to
do it (cf. Daley, 2010). For Augustine, the only way for man to fulfill both
the “law of fear” written on stone (found in the Old Testament) and
the “law of love” written in our hearts (as found in the New Testament),
authored by one and the same Holy Spirit (TeSelle, 1999; Daley, 2010).

2022-2023 Module Packet for ASF 3 (ST. AUGUSTINE ON ETHICS). Center for Religious SR. JEAN ALCAIN, LMSH 07/27/2022
Studies, University of San Agustin, Iloilo City, Philippines. DR. REYNOLD B. NAVARES

Email: [email protected] | Tel. No.: 0999-997-1485 | Fax No.: (033) 337-4403

 University of San Agustin
General Luna St., 5000 Iloilo City, Philippines
www.usa.edu.ph

CENTER FOR RELIGIOUS STUDIES

Without the aid of God, human beings cannot fulfill God’s commands.
In contrast to what Pelagianism claimed.

MODULE 3. ASSESSMENT TASK 3: QUIZ

(Teacher has to prepare the questions. Options to do such as using

gamification, quiz dashboard provided by NEO-LMS, etc.).

MODULE 3. CONCLUSION

A human person as free is aided by divine grace in the use of

his/her free will. It also guides the persons in the conduct of their
conduct, the proper understanding of man’s two kinds of “will”, the
correct and erroneous ones which can be identified in one’s
behaving.

The role of grace is erroneous in the minds of the Pelagian’s

understanding of grace which guides the person in the conduct of
his/her free-will. The Old Testament comes in place as to serve as a
safeguard for the person not to commit evil-prohibited human acts.

2022-2023 Module Packet for ASF 3 (ST. AUGUSTINE ON ETHICS). Center for Religious SR. JEAN ALCAIN, LMSH 07/27/2022
Studies, University of San Agustin, Iloilo City, Philippines. DR. REYNOLD B. NAVARES

Email: [email protected] | Tel. No.: 0999-997-1485 | Fax No.: (033) 337-4403

 University of San Agustin
General Luna St., 5000 Iloilo City, Philippines
www.usa.edu.ph

CENTER FOR RELIGIOUS STUDIES

MODULE 3: CLOSING PRAYER

Closing Prayer: Please pray the Official Prayer after Class.

Leader: Our help is in the name of the Lord,

All: Who made heaven and earth.
Leader: Let us pray.
All: God, the desire of every human heart, you
moved Saint Augustine to seek restlessly for truth
and peace. Touch our hearts with his burning
desire for wisdom, for the Word made flesh. We
Leader: ask this through Christ, our Lord. Amen.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son, and to
All: the Holy Spirit.
As it was in the beginning, is now, and will be
forever. Amen.

MODULE 3. REFERENCES:

• Alvarez, Fr. Czar Emmanuel V., OSA and Cabahug, Fr. Reo G.,
OSA. (2021). Augustinian Ethics. ReSt 1: 72-117.
• Hildebrand, Stephen M. “The Letter Kills but the Spirit Gives Life,”
Augustinian Studies 41 (2010) 19-39.
• Holtzen, T. “The Therapeutic Nature of Grace in St. Augustine’s
De gratia et libero arbitrio.” Augustinian Studies 31:1 (2000): 93-
115.

2022-2023 Module Packet for ASF 3 (ST. AUGUSTINE ON ETHICS). Center for Religious SR. JEAN ALCAIN, LMSH 07/27/2022
Studies, University of San Agustin, Iloilo City, Philippines. DR. REYNOLD B. NAVARES

Email: [email protected] | Tel. No.: 0999-997-1485 | Fax No.: (033) 337-4403

 University of San Agustin
General Luna St., 5000 Iloilo City, Philippines
www.usa.edu.ph

CENTER FOR RELIGIOUS STUDIES

• Stump, E. “Augustine on Free Will” in The Cambridge

Companion to Augustine. Eds. Eleonore Stump and Norman
Kretzmann. Cambridge
• The Jerusalem Bible. (2005). Philippines: Philippine Bible Society.
• Wilson-Kastner, P. “Grace as Participation in the Divine Life in the
Theology of Augustine of Hippo.” Augustinian Studies 7 (1976):
135-152.

2022-2023 Module Packet for ASF 3 (ST. AUGUSTINE ON ETHICS). Center for Religious SR. JEAN ALCAIN, LMSH 07/27/2022
Studies, University of San Agustin, Iloilo City, Philippines. DR. REYNOLD B. NAVARES

Email: [email protected] | Tel. No.: 0999-997-1485 | Fax No.: (033) 337-4403

ASF 3
Module 3:
Human
Free Will
and Divine
Grace
Prepared by Veronica Dy-
Liacco, PhD based on the
ASF 3 Modules created by
Reynold Navares, PhD and
Sr. Jean Alcain, LSMH
What you choose to spend time on
reflects on your eternal soul:
• For the activity, post on the Padlet link people or
activities that give you joy (even momentary joys).
• Rank them either as low, middle, or high.
• Post three items total for 15 points (doesn't matter
what they rank as).
• Don’t forget to write your name on your posts.
• I posted 3 as an example.
Evil as Privation
• For Augustine, evil is a lack of God’s perfection.
• As creatures created by God, we are finite and
imperfect.
• This leaves room for evil to take root in us.
• Therefore we must choose carefully the things we take
time for.
• Do these things help us on our way to God?
Augustine’s Understanding
of Freewill
• Augustine understands that man turns
towards evil when he chooses a lesser
good.
• This is because God created all things to
be good.
• Even the tree of the Knowledge of Good
and Evil that was in paradise was good
as well.
• But man’s choice for independence from
God in eating of the forbidden tree
constitutes man’s decision for evil.
Why was the tree in
the garden?
• God was teaching man a lesson.
• That our freedom must always be under
God’s guidance.
• The very act of turning away from God,
who alone is the Summum Bonum, is
evil.
Augustine's
Classification
of Freewill

• There is a correct will, or

voluntas recta.
• And there is an erroneous
will, or voluntas perversa.
• There is the good will, or bona
voluntas
• And there is an evil will, or
mala voluntas.
Augustine's Classification of Freewill
• The good will he identifies • Anything we love that does
as "good love" not eventually lead to God
is a "perverted love".
• While the bad will he
identifies as "perverted • The proper object of our
love". love is God alone.
• “A rightly directed will • Augustine "teaches us to
is love in a good sense and focus as much as possible
a perverted will is love in a only on what is
bad sense” (The City of God intrinsically good."
14.7).
• ASF 3 Module 3 Act2A.2
Augustine's Hierarchy of Goods
Source: Philosophy Headquarters, "011 Revisiting the Hierarchy of Goods: Augustine on Human Beings as Intermediate
Goods," https://youtu.be/7Hth2T4dZSg.

Kinds of Goods
Lower Goods: Intermediate Higher Goods:
• Worldly/profane Goods • Divine
• Corporeal/physical • The human who has • Spiritual/Incorporeal
• Changing and both a physical body • Unchanging and
impermanent and a spiritual soul permanent
• Enjoyed/perceived by • Sensed by the spirit
the body
 Humans tend to obey
their physical senses
more than the spiritual
ones
• Augustine observes that we
tend to choose the inferior
goods.
• These include our tendency to
choose worldly honor and
glory, physical beauty (over
the spiritual), wealth (money
and what it can buy rather
than the treasures of heaven).
• ASF 3 Module 3 Act2A.2
This Photo by Unknown author is licensed under CC BY-NC.
The tendency to choose this world over
heaven is humanity's fallen nature.
Because of our fallen nature,
Augustine emphasizes our
need for God's grace.

With God's grace we

can receive God's guidance
and his healing.

This gives us a better sense

of what to love while
navigating this life.
Be Thou My
Vision
(Traditional
Irish Hymn
ca. 6/7
centuries)
 Grace: the difference between
Augustine and Pelagius
• For Pelagius, grace is built-into • For Augustine, grace is outside of
human nature. human nature.

• Adam's sin affected Adam and Eve • This is due to original sin. Adam's
(his wife) only: No such thing as sin affected all humanity since
a "fall". Adam's time. All flesh becomes
tainted.
• Therefore, baptism is not necessary.
• Augustine emphasized man's need
• "Whether one could be saved or not for the grace that comes from God.
depended solely on how one used
free will." God does not ask the • Augustine avers that “anything good
impossible. in a human person including any
goodness in the will is a gift of God”
• ASF 3 Module 3 Act2B.1 (Stump, 2001; cf. On Free Will
2.19.50).
Augustine on the Role of
the Law in the Old
Testament
• The Mosaic Laws: reveal to the
people of God a fuller knowledge of
what sin was and to develop in them
the rightful guilt for committing it.
The holy laws teach individuals to
abhor sin, but they do not give them
the capacity to avoid it. But with
careful meditation on these laws,
one is prepared for conversion
(Hildebrand, 2010).
Augustine: The Holy
Spirit is the Author of
the Law of God
• The Old form of the Law is
written on tablets of stone.
• The New form of the Law is
written in our hearts.
• The only way to fulfill what
the Law demands is by
submitting oneself to the Holy
Spirit.
• Image credit: painting by Gebhart Fugel titled "erhält
die Tafeln" (ca. 1900).
Module 3
 University of San Agustin
General Luna St., 5000 Iloilo City, Philippines
www.usa.edu.ph

CENTER FOR RELIGIOUS STUDIES

MODULE 4: PHENOMENOLOGY OF LOVE

MODULE 4: OPENING PRAYER

INSTRUCTION: IF YOU ARE READY, YOU CAN NOW START WITH MODULE 4.

Opening Prayer: As we start with this lesson, I invite you

to pray the Official Prayer before class.

Leader: When we live in unity,

All: How good and how pleasant it is.
Leader: Pray or us, Holy Father Augustine,
All: That we may dwell together in peace.
Leader: Let us pray,
All: God our Father, Your Son promised to be
present in the midst of all who come together in
His name. Help us to recognize His presence
among us and experience in our hearts the
abundance of Your grace, Your mercy, and
Your peace, in truth and in love. We ask this,
through Christ our Lord. Amen.

2022-2023 Module Packet for ASF 3 (ST. AUGUSTINE ON ETHICS). Center for Religious SR. JEAN ALCAIN, LMSH 07/27/2022
Studies, University of San Agustin, Iloilo City, Philippines. DR. REYNOLD B. NAVARES

Email: [email protected] | Tel. No.: 0999-997-1485 | Fax No.: (033) 337-4403

 University of San Agustin
General Luna St., 5000 Iloilo City, Philippines
www.usa.edu.ph

CENTER FOR RELIGIOUS STUDIES

A GRACE-FILLED DAY! WELCOME TO MODULE 4.

This module includes the definition of love, fundamental types of love,

various objects of love, and the weight of love. It would help one
understands to various reflections of Saint Augustine in relation to the
Phenomenology of Love.

Consultation hours:
Phone/messenger:
Virtual time:

MODULE 4: LEARNING OBJECTIVES

By the end of Module 4, students will be able to:

1. identify the importance of love to every human person;

2. determine the ways on how to love oneself, others and the
world;
3. compose a poem on love.

2022-2023 Module Packet for ASF 3 (ST. AUGUSTINE ON ETHICS). Center for Religious SR. JEAN ALCAIN, LMSH 07/27/2022
Studies, University of San Agustin, Iloilo City, Philippines. DR. REYNOLD B. NAVARES

Email: [email protected] | Tel. No.: 0999-997-1485 | Fax No.: (033) 337-4403

 University of San Agustin
General Luna St., 5000 Iloilo City, Philippines
www.usa.edu.ph

CENTER FOR RELIGIOUS STUDIES

MODULE 4: COURSE CONTENTS

Below is the Schedule for Module 4.

TIME TO
ACTIVITY DESCRIPTION OVERVIEW
COMPLETE
Opening Prayer 2 minutes

Learning Objectives 2 minutes

1 Concentric Circle of Love 10 minutes

2A Topic 1: WHAT IS LOVE? 15 minutes

Topic 2: TWO FUNDAMENTAL TYPES
2B 15 minutes
OF LOVE
Topic 3: VARIOUS OBJECTS OF
2C 15 minutes
LOVE
2D Topic 4: “MY LOVE IS MY WEIGHT” 15 minutes
Assessment Task 1: Poem
10 minutes
Composition about Love
Assessment Task 2: Quiz 10 minutes

Conclusion 3 minutes

Closing Prayer 1 minute

References

2022-2023 Module Packet for ASF 3 (ST. AUGUSTINE ON ETHICS). Center for Religious SR. JEAN ALCAIN, LMSH 07/27/2022
Studies, University of San Agustin, Iloilo City, Philippines. DR. REYNOLD B. NAVARES

Email: [email protected] | Tel. No.: 0999-997-1485 | Fax No.: (033) 337-4403

 University of San Agustin
General Luna St., 5000 Iloilo City, Philippines
www.usa.edu.ph

CENTER FOR RELIGIOUS STUDIES

MODULE 4. Activity 1 – CONCENTRIC CIRCLE OF LOVE

Before introducing the topics, ask students what is provided by the

concentric circle below or they can also post their answer to the NEO-
LMS dashboard.

Score: 10 points

HOW IMPORTANT LOVE IS

IN YOUR LIFE?

WHAT ARE THE OBJECTS OF

YOUR LOVE?

WHY KINDS OF LOVE

DIFFER LEVELLY?

WHAT IS
LOVE?

2022-2023 Module Packet for ASF 3 (ST. AUGUSTINE ON ETHICS). Center for Religious SR. JEAN ALCAIN, LMSH 07/27/2022
Studies, University of San Agustin, Iloilo City, Philippines. DR. REYNOLD B. NAVARES

Email: [email protected] | Tel. No.: 0999-997-1485 | Fax No.: (033) 337-4403

 University of San Agustin
General Luna St., 5000 Iloilo City, Philippines
www.usa.edu.ph

CENTER FOR RELIGIOUS STUDIES

SHORT DEEPENING LEADING TO THE LECTURE/DISCUSSION PROPER:

(The teacher can choose any of these options to do lecture/

discussion such as ppt/pdf presentation, pre-recorded lecture,
summary-overview processing, NEO-LMS tools, interactive apps such
as slido, poll everywhere, gamification, etc.)

MODULE 4: Activity 2A – WHAT IS LOVE? (Alvarez & Cabahug, 2021)

Please read the script below.

1. Role of Love in the Augustinian Ethics

Love plays an essential role in Augustinian ethics. With the help

of God’s grace, the human will is healed and drawn to love the good
and giving it the power to accomplish the good (cf. Holtzen, 2000).
“The therapeutic nature of grace heals the will through the Holy Spirit
by illuminating the soul with the love of God” (ibid.).

Love is closely associated with desire, passion, emotions, and so

forth. The African bishop criticizes the Stoic ideal of “apatheia” which
says that a wise man should not experience the four fundamental
“disorders” or “passions” of desire, joy, fear, and grief (cf. The City of
God 14.3; 14.8).

2022-2023 Module Packet for ASF 3 (ST. AUGUSTINE ON ETHICS). Center for Religious SR. JEAN ALCAIN, LMSH 07/27/2022
Studies, University of San Agustin, Iloilo City, Philippines. DR. REYNOLD B. NAVARES

Email: [email protected] | Tel. No.: 0999-997-1485 | Fax No.: (033) 337-4403

 University of San Agustin
General Luna St., 5000 Iloilo City, Philippines
www.usa.edu.ph

CENTER FOR RELIGIOUS STUDIES

2. Augustine’s Perception of Love

For Augustine, both the good and the bad experience such
emotions. What matters is the intention. Augustine writes: “The
important factor in these emotions is the character of a man’s will. If
the will is wrongly directed, the emotions will be wrong; if the will is
right, the emotions will be not only blameless but praiseworthy. The will
is engaged in all of them; in fact, they are all essentially acts of will”
(The City of God 14.6). Hence, “the citizens of the Holy City of God as
they live by God’s standards in the pilgrimage of this present life, feel
fear and desire, pain and gladness in conformity with the Holy
Scriptures and sound doctrine; and because their love is right, all these
feelings are right in them” (The City of God 14.9). Christ himself
manifested the same feelings during his earthly life (The City of God
14.9). Man will cease to experience them only once our earthly
pilgrimage is over.

Augustinian phenomenology of love deserves a separate

treatment. It is described in generic terms as an inclination,
movement, or a striving (The City of God 14.7) so strong such that a
person becomes one with the object of one’s love (On Order 2.18.48;
On the Trinity 8.10.14). “A person is what one loves” (On the Letter of
John 5.7-8 and 2.14).

MODULE 4: Activity 2B – TWO FUNDAMENTAL TYPES OF LOVE (Alvarez &

Cabahug, 2021)

Please read the script below.

1. Augustine’s Explanation of the different types of Love

Augustine’s “City of God” described and elaborated that man

is basically guided by two types of love – love of self (amor sui) and
2022-2023 Module Packet for ASF 3 (ST. AUGUSTINE ON ETHICS). Center for Religious SR. JEAN ALCAIN, LMSH 07/27/2022
Studies, University of San Agustin, Iloilo City, Philippines. DR. REYNOLD B. NAVARES

Email: [email protected] | Tel. No.: 0999-997-1485 | Fax No.: (033) 337-4403

 University of San Agustin
General Luna St., 5000 Iloilo City, Philippines
www.usa.edu.ph

CENTER FOR RELIGIOUS STUDIES

love of God (amor Dei). The bishop of Hippo traces the very origin of
the two “cities” to two types of love: – the earthly city was created by
self-love reaching the point of contempt for God; the heavenly city,
by the love of God carried as far as contempt of self” (The City of God
14.28; cf. 14.13; 14.28; 15.22; On the Literal Interpretation of Genesis
11.15). Ancient thinkers perceive a virtuous life as simply the result of
the acquisition of virtues which basically are “rightly ordered love”
(The City of God 15.22). Its opposite is a life of vice – presented as a
distorted or disordered kind of love that prevail in one’s life.

Augustine distinguishes kinds of love (Fitzgerald, 1999): licit/illicit

human love, and divine love. It is with lawful human love that we love
wives, children, friends, fellow citizens, neighbors, and relatives. If we
would not love them, we are to be reprehended and are not fit even
to count among human beings. Though we have to love them, even
in a worldly way, we should love Christ more. For Augustine, Christians
have to love with the love given to them by the Holy Spirit. Our love
must be inspired by divine love, and ought to mirror it. Love as a gift
of God endows the human will with a new desire, a striving for divine
truth, wisdom, and justice. Such a love excludes all that is sinful,
namely, possessive or egoistic love, pretension, self-glorification, and
seeking one’s own profit.

Thus, love as the gift of God applies in the first place to God’s
love for us. Only God can give himself to us. He has loved us first, as
appears from the sending of his incarnate son as well as the gift of the
Holy Spirit. This has consequences for our love of God. We can love
God only through the Spirit who is poured into our hearts (Romans 5:5,
Sermon 34.2-3).

2022-2023 Module Packet for ASF 3 (ST. AUGUSTINE ON ETHICS). Center for Religious SR. JEAN ALCAIN, LMSH 07/27/2022
Studies, University of San Agustin, Iloilo City, Philippines. DR. REYNOLD B. NAVARES

Email: [email protected] | Tel. No.: 0999-997-1485 | Fax No.: (033) 337-4403

 University of San Agustin
General Luna St., 5000 Iloilo City, Philippines
www.usa.edu.ph

CENTER FOR RELIGIOUS STUDIES

MODULE 4: Activity 2C – VARIOUS OBJECTS OF LOVE (Alvarez &

Cabahug, 2021)

Please read the script below.

The kind of loved one has in his heart does not only influence the
way a person lives in this world but also transforms him and determines
the direction of his eternal destiny. As how the French philosopher É.
Gilson explains, “the object loved reacts in some way on the loving
subject so as to transform it into its own image and thereby assimilate
it” (Gilson, 1960). “To love the material and perishable things,
therefore, is to be materialized and doomed to perish; to love the
eternal is to become eternal; to love God is to become [like] God”
(ibid.).

Love is a life coupling two realities or trying to couple them: the

lover and the loved object (Trin. 8.10.14). Consequently, there are four
objects of love (Fitzgerald, 1999) we should love: God, ourselves, our
neighbors, and our body. Love of ourselves and love of our body are
so natural, that there is no need to give explicit commandments
about them. No one hates himself or herself or his or her own body
(doc. Chr.1.23.22-1.24.24).

1) Love of God

Love unites us with God as our eternal, everlasting good. Only

God as summum bonum can guarantee true happiness, our love
will become perfect when we have attained God as our supreme
good. Then our love will increase, and become more intense, surer,
and firmer (Sermon 158.7.7-158.9.9; doc. Chr.1.38.42-1.39.43). The
idea of God as the highest good leads to the thesis that God alone
may be enjoyed (frui), and all other created realities have to be
referred to as the love of God (uti).
2022-2023 Module Packet for ASF 3 (ST. AUGUSTINE ON ETHICS). Center for Religious SR. JEAN ALCAIN, LMSH 07/27/2022
Studies, University of San Agustin, Iloilo City, Philippines. DR. REYNOLD B. NAVARES

Email: [email protected] | Tel. No.: 0999-997-1485 | Fax No.: (033) 337-4403

 University of San Agustin
General Luna St., 5000 Iloilo City, Philippines
www.usa.edu.ph

CENTER FOR RELIGIOUS STUDIES

Thus, God wishes that we love him as our highest good, and this
does not at all mean the destruction of ourselves. The longing for
happiness of the subject has to take into account the objectively
created order of things, for only an imperishable good will make us
truly happy. Moreover, to love God means also doing his will and
performing his commandments, which is certainly not merely selfish.

2) Self-love

Love proceeds from the status of the human being as a

creature. Our insufficiency makes us seek the source of being,
expressing our dependence rather than our self-sufficiency. This is
why right self-love consists in loving God. We love ourselves by
loving God (Ep. 130.7.14). Self-love is good when it is not contrary
to the love of God. Knowing how to love oneself is to love God; if
one does not love God, even granting that self-love is something
natural within the human being, the self-love of a given person can
be said to occur, not inappropriately, as he or she is hating himself
or herself (Trin. 14.14.18; disc. Chr.4.4).

Doing good is a duty that we owe to ourselves. Thus, we care for

our own well-being in the full sense of the word if we have a
genuine concern for the deepest meaning of life, and this is to be
found in love for God. It is the first gift we can give ourselves (ench.
20.76).

3) Love of Neighbor

God’s self-revelation as love becomes for us an appeal, a

demand, and a commandment to love our neighbors as God loves
them. There are three strong motives for the love of all human
beings: (a) they share in the same human nature with us; (b) it is
2022-2023 Module Packet for ASF 3 (ST. AUGUSTINE ON ETHICS). Center for Religious SR. JEAN ALCAIN, LMSH 07/27/2022
Studies, University of San Agustin, Iloilo City, Philippines. DR. REYNOLD B. NAVARES

Email: [email protected] | Tel. No.: 0999-997-1485 | Fax No.: (033) 337-4403

 University of San Agustin
General Luna St., 5000 Iloilo City, Philippines
www.usa.edu.ph

CENTER FOR RELIGIOUS STUDIES

God’s commandment to do so; (c) God’s presence is in them. The

neighbor is every human being, whether that person is a Christian
or non-Christian, a righteous or a sinner. “Every human being is the
neighbor of every human being” (disc. Chr. 3.3).

For Augustine, it is impossible to love God without loving our

neighbors. Augustine relies strongly on biblical arguments for this
position – e.g. Matthew 5:23-24, 1John 4:20 because of the universal
nature of God’s love, he can even affirm that we meet God in
every human person.

4) Love of the Body

The human self is a unit of mind and body (doc. Chr.1.24.24).

Against the Manichees and some Neoplatonists, Christians have to
maintain that the body as such as created by God. Due to the fact
that nature in itself is something good, one should never accuse the
flesh of evil; evil is to be attributed to the human being as a whole
(cont. 4.11). Therefore, the body is not in jail as the result of a sin
committed by the soul in another life. Only the body in its
corruptibility and mortality can be characterized with this term (s.
240.4.4; en. Ps. 141.17-19). Care for the body is based on natural
love for it, although the martyrs overcame this love, but without
despising their bodies (cura mort. 7.9; s.277.3.3.-277.4.4).

Another eschatological reason for loving our bodies consists in

belief in the resurrection of the body. Our flesh will be restored
without any loss of its limbs, and we will get back our flesh without
the weakness of corruptibility and mortality. Consequently, we
have to affirm two things regarding the resurrection of the body: it
is the same body that will be resurrected; it is not exactly the same
body because it will be freed from misery.

2022-2023 Module Packet for ASF 3 (ST. AUGUSTINE ON ETHICS). Center for Religious SR. JEAN ALCAIN, LMSH 07/27/2022
Studies, University of San Agustin, Iloilo City, Philippines. DR. REYNOLD B. NAVARES

Email: [email protected] | Tel. No.: 0999-997-1485 | Fax No.: (033) 337-4403

 University of San Agustin
General Luna St., 5000 Iloilo City, Philippines
www.usa.edu.ph

CENTER FOR RELIGIOUS STUDIES

MODULE 4: Activity 2D – “MY LOVE IS MY WEIGHT” (Alvarez & Cabahug,

2021)

Please read the script below.

1) Augustine’s Reflection on Love

Augustine’s famous words, “my weight is my love” (Conf. 13.10),

help one understand the crucial role of love in a man’s life. It
determines how one lives, thinks, feels, and establishes relationships.
There has to be a certain “order of love” (ordo amoris) – that is, order
as to the objects of one’s love (cf. Arendt, 1996). “This is true of
everything created; though it is good, it can be loved in the right way
or in the wrong way – in the right way when the proper order is kept,
in the wrong way when the order is upset” (The City of God 15.22).

2) Augustine’s Symbolism of Love

Physical symbols (Fitzgerald, 1999) are used to emphasize the

movement included in loving: feet (pedes), weight (pondus), and
wings (alae). We should not love all the things we use (uti), but only
those which, on the basis of a certain affinity with us, have a
relationship with God such as the human person or those things which,
in intimate union with us, need God’s blessing through our mediation,
like the body.

Augustine in 407 A.D said, “love and do what you will”

(ep.Jo.7:8), was not on the autonomy of personal action or intention
but on the fact that all human action is in God and must be seen from
the point of view of God’s love. The Donatists paid attention to purity
and exclusion and made “the spirit dependent upon the flesh and
divine grace hostage to human sin” (Straw 1983), Augustine
developed an ethics that highlighted human integrity (en. Ps.50.24).
2022-2023 Module Packet for ASF 3 (ST. AUGUSTINE ON ETHICS). Center for Religious SR. JEAN ALCAIN, LMSH 07/27/2022
Studies, University of San Agustin, Iloilo City, Philippines. DR. REYNOLD B. NAVARES

Email: [email protected] | Tel. No.: 0999-997-1485 | Fax No.: (033) 337-4403

 University of San Agustin
General Luna St., 5000 Iloilo City, Philippines
www.usa.edu.ph

CENTER FOR RELIGIOUS STUDIES

Integrity included participation in the body of Christ; a required

communion with the Church through the love of neighbor
(Cresc.2.34.42; ep.108.6; cf. Straw 1983). Love of God and neighbor is
an essential dimension of Christian action (civ. Dei 19.27) and to
promise holiness on the human will vitiate Christian ethics. (Fitzgerald,
1999)

MODULE 4. ASSESSMENT TASK 1: POEM COMPOSITION ON LOVE

Relate your love story to the following guided questions below then
compose your own or any of your significant person’s real love
experience story by preparing a poem composed in the way you
narrate your own love story.

1. How would you define love? Can you name different types of
love?
2. Do you think that love plays an important role in a man’s life?
Why?
3. What is the role of love in your life? How does it determine the
way you relate to yourself, to the people around you, and to
the world you live in?
4. If you were to make a list of the things that you love (objects of
love), which of them would you consider the most important?
Explain.

2022-2023 Module Packet for ASF 3 (ST. AUGUSTINE ON ETHICS). Center for Religious SR. JEAN ALCAIN, LMSH 07/27/2022
Studies, University of San Agustin, Iloilo City, Philippines. DR. REYNOLD B. NAVARES

Email: [email protected] | Tel. No.: 0999-997-1485 | Fax No.: (033) 337-4403

 University of San Agustin
General Luna St., 5000 Iloilo City, Philippines
www.usa.edu.ph

CENTER FOR RELIGIOUS STUDIES

Score: 20 points, see Rubrics below.

Needs
Excellent Good Satisfactory
CATEGORY Improvement
4 points 3 points 2 points
1 point
THE WRITING Students Students Student Student
PROCESS / devoted a devoted devoted some devoted little
lot of time adequate time time and effort time and effort
and effort to and effort to to the writing to the writing
EFFORT the writing the writing process but process. It
process and process and was not very appears that
worked hard worked to get thorough. Do the student
to make the the job done. enough to get does not care
poem a The poem may by. There are about the
good read. have one or several errors. assignment.
The poem two errors. The poem has
has no errors. many errors.

TITLE The poem The poem has The poem has The poem has
has a title a title that a title no title
that clearly relates to the
relates to the poem
poem and
adds interest
to the theme
or message
of the poem

NEATNESS The final The final draft The final draft The final draft
draft of the of the poem is of the poem is is not neat or
poem is readable, neat readable and attractive. It
readable, and attractive. some of the looks like the
clean, neat It may have pages are student just

2022-2023 Module Packet for ASF 3 (ST. AUGUSTINE ON ETHICS). Center for Religious SR. JEAN ALCAIN, LMSH 07/27/2022
Studies, University of San Agustin, Iloilo City, Philippines. DR. REYNOLD B. NAVARES

Email: [email protected] | Tel. No.: 0999-997-1485 | Fax No.: (033) 337-4403

 University of San Agustin
General Luna St., 5000 Iloilo City, Philippines
www.usa.edu.ph

CENTER FOR RELIGIOUS STUDIES

and one or two attractive. It wanted to get

attractive. It erasures, but looks like parts it done and
is free of they are not of it might didn’t care
erasures and distracting. It have been what it looked
crossed-out looks like the done in a like.
words. It author took hurry.
looks like the some pride in it.
author took
great pride
in it.

STYLE The poem is The poem is The poem is The poem

written with written with a written lacks style, and
a great defined style. somewhat the thoughts
sense of Thoughts are with style. did not come
style. The clear to read Thoughts are out clearly on
poem has and clear to a paper.
been well understandabl degree.
thought out e.
and makes
sense to the
reader.

MODULE 4. ASSESSMENT TASK 2: QUIZ

(Teacher has to prepare the questions. Options to do such as using

gamification, quiz dashboard provided by NEO-LMS, etc.).

2022-2023 Module Packet for ASF 3 (ST. AUGUSTINE ON ETHICS). Center for Religious SR. JEAN ALCAIN, LMSH 07/27/2022
Studies, University of San Agustin, Iloilo City, Philippines. DR. REYNOLD B. NAVARES

Email: [email protected] | Tel. No.: 0999-997-1485 | Fax No.: (033) 337-4403

 University of San Agustin
General Luna St., 5000 Iloilo City, Philippines
www.usa.edu.ph

CENTER FOR RELIGIOUS STUDIES

MODULE 4. CONCLUSION

Love is a dynamic force expressed in Charity. A sound individual

must live in love, and love has many faces. True love connotes
“sacrifice” for the sake of others, and those possessing it can be
considered as heaven bound while those seeking temporary/fleshly
pleasure are earthly bound. The way a person behaves identifies what
kind of loved one adheres to, expressed in one’s behaving.

MODULE 4: CLOSING PRAYER

Closing Prayer: Please pray the Official Prayer after Class.

Leader: Our help is in the name of the Lord,

All: Who made heaven and earth.
Leader: Let us pray.
All: God, the desire of every human heart, you
moved Saint Augustine to seek restlessly for truth
and peace. Touch our hearts with his burning
desire for wisdom, for the Word made flesh. We
Leader: ask this through Christ, our Lord. Amen.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son, and to
All: the Holy Spirit.
As it was in the beginning, is now, and will be
forever. Amen.

2022-2023 Module Packet for ASF 3 (ST. AUGUSTINE ON ETHICS). Center for Religious SR. JEAN ALCAIN, LMSH 07/27/2022
Studies, University of San Agustin, Iloilo City, Philippines. DR. REYNOLD B. NAVARES

Email: [email protected] | Tel. No.: 0999-997-1485 | Fax No.: (033) 337-4403

 University of San Agustin
General Luna St., 5000 Iloilo City, Philippines
www.usa.edu.ph

CENTER FOR RELIGIOUS STUDIES

MODULE 4. REFERENCES:

• Alvarez, Fr. Czar Emmanuel V., OSA and Cabahug, Fr. Reo G.,
OSA. (2021). Augustinian Ethics. ReSt 1: 72-117.
• Augustine, Confessions (Confessiones). Buolding, M. OSA
(tr.)(1992). New York City Press, USA. In Rotelle (ed).
• Cress, D. A. “Augustine’s Privation Account of Evil.” Augustinian
Studies 20 (1989): 109-128.
• The Jerusalem Bible. (2005). Philippines: Philippine Bible Society.

2022-2023 Module Packet for ASF 3 (ST. AUGUSTINE ON ETHICS). Center for Religious SR. JEAN ALCAIN, LMSH 07/27/2022
Studies, University of San Agustin, Iloilo City, Philippines. DR. REYNOLD B. NAVARES

Email: [email protected] | Tel. No.: 0999-997-1485 | Fax No.: (033) 337-4403

ASF 3 Module 4:
Phenomenology of Love
Graded Padlet Sharing:
My Love Story Playlist
• Reflect on your own personal love story (with your loved one/s,
with Jesus, with anime waifu/hasbando etc.)
• Create a playlist of at least three songs and post the numbered list
to the Padlet link posted in the NEO course site (one post only per
student): https://padlet.com/vdyliacco/o07wnq22fzlo4qty.
• Feature one of the songs on your list as a YouTube video for
playing during class next week.
• 20 points total.
• I posted my own playlist as an example. Playlist title is optional.
Module 4 Activity 2A

What is Love?
ASF 3 Module 4 Activity 2A.1
• The Role of Love in Augustinian Ethics
– For Augustinian Ethics, Grace is a key concept.
– Grace heals our wills so that we learn to love the good.
– Grace also gives us the power to do the good.
– “The therapeutic nature of grace heals the will through the
Holy Spirit by illuminating the soul with the love of God”
(Holzen 2000).
Epictetus on Apatheia
Source: Academy of Ideas, “Introduction to Stoicism,” https://youtu.be/o0MzQZ_eFEY.

• Whenever you see someone holding political power, set against

it the fact that you yourself have no need of political power.
Whenever you see someone wealthy, observe what you have
instead of that. For if you have nothing in its place, you are in a
miserable state; but if you have the absence of the need to
have wealth, realize that you have something greater and much
more valuable.
• One man has a beautiful wife, you have the absence of longing
for a beautiful wife. Do you think these are little things? How
much would these very people—the wealthy, the powerful, the
ones who live with beautiful women—pay for the ability to look
down on wealth and power and those very women whom they
adore and get?
On Apatheia
Source: Academy of Ideas, “Introduction to Stoicism,” https://youtu.be/o0MzQZ_eFEY.
Source: Everyday Stoic, “Strengthen your Mind like a Stoic – Apatheia,” https://youtu.be/f6Pn3gEf0fs.

• The stoics enjoyed health, wealth, fame, good food, and sexual
gratification when these could be found.
• However, the stoics’ happiness did not depend on having these
things. Having this attitude meant that Stoics could enjoy these
things without worrying about losing them.
• Seneca: “It is not within man’s power to have what he wants. But
he does have the power to enjoy the good things that do come
his way.”
• Apatheia is when a person is free in terms of the negative
passions. Stoics cultivated apatheia in order to obtain a sense of
tranquility towards the caprices of living.
Augustine focused on the intention rather
than the individual’s attitude towards life.
• The intention, for Augustine, is what he called “the
character of a man’s will”: “If the will is wrongly directed,
the emotions will be wrong; if the will is right, the emotions
will be not only blameless but praiseworthy. The will is
engaged in all of them; in fact, they are all essentially
acts of will” (The City of God 14.6).
• “[T]he citizens of the Holy City of God as they live by
God’s standards in the pilgrimage of this present life, feel
fear and desire, pain and gladness in conformity with the
Holy Scriptures and sound doctrine; and because their
love is right, all these feelings are right in them” (The City
of God 14.9).
For a Christian, the aim is not Eudaemonia.
Our aim is to love and serve God.
• From the 2nd Letter of Saint
Paul to Timothy:
• “So do not be ashamed of
your testimony to our Lord, nor
of me, a prisoner for his sake;
but bear your share of
hardship for the gospel with
the strength that comes from
God.”
• Painting by Rambrandt, “St. Paul in Prison,”(1627),
Useum. Retrieved from:
https://useum.org/artwork/St-Paul-in-Prison-
Rembrandt-1627.
The Intention
of the Will
matters to
Augustine
Because we BECOME
whatever is the OBJECT of
our love.
Cf. ASF 3 Module 4 Activity
2A.2
Art by: Yongsung Kim, “Calming Embrace.”
Retrieved from:
https://www.amazon.com/Yongsung-Kim-
Painting-Embracing-
HavenLight/dp/B07L3N5H1B?th=1.
Go and Sin
no More
The woman caught in
adultery receives the
mercy of Christ and the
grace to live a pure life.

Source: The Church of Jesus Christ of

Latter-Day Saints, “Go and Sin no More,”
(August 31, 2012). Retrieved from:
https://youtu.be/w5GXnM_TxSQ.
By My Side
From the musical,
Godspell.
MV by John Rand.
Retrieved from
https://youtu.be/3UW
6Yc6iTKQ.
Module 3
ASF 3 MODULE 4:
PHENOMENOLOGY OF LOVE
Presented by Veronica Chiari A. Dy-Liacco, PhD.
Based on the module prepared by Dr. Reynold Navares, PhD
and Sr. Jean Alcain
LESSON OUTLINE
Types of Love

Objects of Love

My Love is my Weight
2 TYPES OF LOVE

ASF 3 Module 4 Activity 2B.1

LOVE OF SELF LOVE OF GOD

Amor Sui makes up the earthly city. It is not Amor Dei makes up the City of God. It leads to
a healthy love of self. It leads to a a healthy contempt of self.
contempt of God.
2 TYPES OF LOVE (CONT'D)

ASF 3 Module 4 Activity 2B.1

LOVE OF SELF LOVE OF GOD

Leads to a life of vice - a disordered kind Results in the acquisition of virtue - "rightly
of love that prevails in one's life. ordered love" (The City of God XV.22)
TWO LEVELS OF
LOVE
Human love and Divine love

HUMAN LOVE DIVINE LOVE

Can be licit or illicit (permissible and not). Lawful When we love as inspired by God's Holy Spirit.
human love is directed towards one's spouse, This is how we may return God's love for us:
children, friends, countrymen, neighbors, relatives, Through the love he himself pours into our
etc. hearts.
VARIOUS OBJECTS OF LOVE
The kind of love one has in his heart does not only
influence the way a person lives in this world but also
transforms him and determines the direction of his
eternal destiny.

“To love the material and perishable things,

therefore, is to be materialized and doomed
to perish; to love the eternal is to become
eternal; to love God is to become [like]
God” (Gilson 1960).
1) LOVE OF GOD
Love unites us with God as our eternal, everlasting
good. Only God as summum bonum can guarantee
true happiness, our love will become perfect when we
have attained God as our supreme good.

Only an imperishable good will make us truly

happy
Means obeying the divine commandments -
this shows that love of God is not selfish
(even if it means finding our true happiness).
2) SELF-LOVE
As creatures, we seek the source of our being,
expressing our dependence rather than our self-
sufficiency.

Self-love is good when it is not contrary to the love

of God. Knowing how to love oneself is to love God.
Not knowing how love God leads to a self-hatred.
We care for our own well-being in the full sense of
the word if we have a genuine concern for the
deepest meaning of life, and this is to be found in
love for God. It is the first gift we can give ourselves
(Ench. XX.76).
 3) LOVE OF
NEIGHBOR

God loves each of us as if there were

only one of us on earth! That means we
should learn to love others as God loves
them.
We are all made in God's own image and
likeness and have the same dignity.

God commands us to love our neighbors.

“Every human being is the neighbor of every

human being” (disc. Chr. 3.3).
3) LOVE OF
NEIGHBOR (CONT'D)

Augustine based his arguments for love of

neighbor on the following biblical verses:

Matt 5:23-24: So when you are offering your

gift at the altar, if you remember that your
brother or sister has something against you,
leave your gift there before the altar and
go; first be reconciled to your brother or
sister, and then come and offer your gift.

1 John 4:20: Those who say, “I love God,” and

hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for
those who do not love a brother or sister
whom they have seen, cannot love God
whom they have not seen.
4) LOVE OF BODY
We are both our bodies and our souls.
Sinful behavior cannot simply be
attributed to the body.

Evil is the fault of the person as a whole, both

body and soul.

Even Augustine did not despise his body after

his conversion. His asceticism was his
practice of a healthy self-denial so that he
can always put God first before himself.
4) LOVE OF BODY
We are both our bodies and our souls.
Sinful behavior cannot simply be
attributed to the body.

We also affirm our bodies as this is the same

body that we will be resurrected with at the
end of time.

But it won't be exactly the same because it

will be freed from misery.
AUGUSTINE SAID:

"My weight is my love" Conf XIII.10

This means that love "determines how

one lives, thinks, feels, and establishes
relationships" (ASF 3 Module 4 Act.
2D.1).

One must order one's loves (ordo

amoris).
ORDO AMORIS
According to Augustine (City of God
XV.22):

This is true of everything created; though it is

good, it can be loved in the right way or in
the wrong way.

In the right way when the proper order is

kept, in the wrong way when the order is
upset.
AUGUSTINE SAID:

"Love and do what you will" ep. Jo.

VII.8

This statement is NOT about the

autonomy of human action or
intention.

Rather, it means that all human action

ought to be rooted in God, from the
point of view of God's love.
AUGUSTINE'S
ETHICS
Emphasize loving as God loves

HUMAN INTEGRITY VS PURITY AND EXCLUSION

Made in God's image, we fulfill that image in Made divine grace dependent upon the state of
us when we learn to love as God loves. This is purity of an individual. This thinking forgets God's
the root of Augustine's saying, to love and do plan for humanity and disregards the gratuity of
what you will. God's grace.
HUMAN
INTEGRITY IN
AUGUSTINE
PARTICIPATION IN THE
BODY OF CHRIST
COMMUNION WITH THE
CHURCH THROUGH
LOVE OF NEIGHBOR
LOVE OF GOD AND
NEIGHBOR
THE WILL'S PURSUIT OF
HOLINESS
 COLLAGE
You are grouped into teams. Create a
collage on any of the themes indicated
below (choose one theme only):

"My weight is my love" / Ordo Amoris

"Love and do what you will" / Human

Integrity

Collage must be composed of 3-6

images. Make sure that your photos
represent the theme to get a perfect
score of 20 points.