Main concern of Christian Philosophers of medieval era: “God and man’s relationship

with God”
- Christian Philosophers did not believe that self-knowledge and happiness were the
ultimate goals of man but instead, man should rely on God’s commands and his
judgement of what constitutes good and evil.

Plato and Greek Philosophers

- Do not see man as basically good and become evil through ignorance of what is
good.

Christian Philosophers
- Sees as man as sinners who reject/go against a loving God’s command.
- Held faith supreme over reason and logic.

— Saint Augustine of Hippo (Aurelius Augustinus)

- Born in a.d. 354, in the city of Tagaste, in the Roman North African province of
Numidia (now Algeria).
- His moderately well-to-do family was religiously mixed. His father, Patricius, was
a pagan who still adhered to the old gods of Rome, and his mother, Monica, was
a devout Christian. Such families were typical of this era, when paganism was in
retreat and Christianity was spreading. Despite his mother’s strong influence,
Augustine was not baptized a Christian until he was in his early thirties.
- His interests focus on moral evil and why it exists in people, his personal desire
for sensual pleasures and questions about all the sufferings.

St. Augustine’s View of Human Nature

1. God as the source of all reality and truth
- He discovered through mystical experience that man is capable of
knowing eternal truths.
- Eternal truth is possible through the existence of God, the one eternal
truth.
- Without God as the source of all truth, man could never understand
eternal truths.
- God is within man and transcends him – means that those who know most
about God will come closest to understanding the true nature of the world.

2. The sinfulness of man

- The cause of sin or evil is an act of man’s freewill.
 *freewill - the idea that we are able to have some choice in how we act and
assumes that we are free to choose our behavior.

- Evil does not live in God’s creatures but rather in man.

- Moral goodness can only be achieved through the grace of God.

The Role of Love

- St. Augustine agreed with the Greek Philosophers that man searches for
happiness.
- He stated that real happiness can only be found in God – for God is love and He
created humans for them to also love.
- Problems arise because of the objects humans choose to love. Disordered love
results when man loves the wrong things which he believes will give him
happiness.

St. Augustine explains:

1. Love of physical objects leads to the sin of greed.

2. Love for other people is not lasting and excessive love for them is the sin of
jealousy.
3. Love for the self leads to the sin of pride.
4. Love for God is the supreme virtue and only through loving God can man find
real happiness.

- All things are worthy of love but they must be loved properly
- St. Augustine : If man loves God first and everything else to a lesser degree then
all will fall into its rightful place.