VI.

Use Augustines theory of Original Sin and the ethical

to respond to Pauls attack on the sin of homosexuality in
Romans Chapter one.
Paul says that virtue is a gift of God through Christ. Paul is talking about natural law
in Romans 1, that God has placed in us the innate ability to see the reflections of
the Creator in the natural order. It is from the natural order that we deduce what is
right and wrong. A classical example is the question of how human communities
come to know right and wrong. We never come to know right and wrong without
paying a price, sometime deadly price. With humankind, a price is paid when we
fail to do what we know. Why are we continually tempted of the inordinate desire to
try to defy what we know is deadly? The other side, we would not accomplish as
much as we do, if we didnt have that inclination.
Consider Romans 8: Paul is trained in the law, but also a product of the GrecoRoman world, in the way you see things in light of the larger picture. With that kind
of background preparation, he brings an ingenious to interpreting the law, piety,
and righteousness that his world had not known. But it all is a consequence/product
of his background and training. The same would be the case with Augustine. If
Augustine had not had the kind of background and training that he had, he would
not have been able to give the symbolic meaning to the Scripture in the world in
which he lived.
The law aroused his sinful passions. Had there not been a law, there would have
been no need to call his passions sinful. Once you prohibit a human, you arouse
their desire to violate prohibition. Some say that Gods curse upon humanity is the
curse of freedom. That is because we always have to choose in life, i.e. sex, money,
accountability. The freedom issue is one of the key concepts he will help us to
understand.
For Augustine, sin is located in the will. This means that I have sinned before I act.
He locates sin in the metaphysical level. This is his Greek heritage, going back to
Plato and Socrates. Those before him had located sin in the body. Paul locates sin
in the will. The monks came back and put it back in the body. Augustine is known
as the churchs first premier theologian, other than Origen. He made a tremendous
contribution of analysis. This theologian helped the Roman Empire understand who
and what Christians were, and why Christians thought the way they did. The church
would not have made it against the highly-educated pagans had his contributions
not been as sophisticated. Why do they feel about sin the way they do, cause if
you put sin in the will, it is universal. You take it out of the wino, dice youre rolling,
or the woman in the mini-skirt. We have traditionally victimized the person we
found sin in because of appearance.

The problem with the will, for Augustine, is that it is inordinate desire. What
happens with Adam and Eve and the forbidden fruit is that they were secretly
corrupted. They wanted it before they even ate the fruit. Augustine makes the
argument the closest thing we have heard to Paul. The disobedience starts in their
desire, which is innate. He puts the burden of responsibility back on the interior
self.
Augustine said we put self above God. And in putting self above God, we sin. The
flaw of the human being is real; therefore, we can never forgo the preaching of sin.