ST.

AUGUSTINE
ON ETHICS
GENERAL INTRODUCTION

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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.
 Augustine also calls “ethics” as “moral philosophy.” For him, happiness is the aim of philosophy in general
 The only purpose of philosophizing is the attainment of happiness
 Augustine’s most basic questions concerned the nature of the good, and how to seek it.
ST. AUGUSTINE’S ETHICAL THOUGHT

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

 What is the summum bonum?

• The summum bonum is Latin for "the highest good." It is the supreme goal of all human action and the ultimate source of
happiness.
• Augustine believed that the summum bonum is God. He argued that God is the only being who is perfectly good, and that all
other goods are good only because they participate in God's goodness.
SUMMUM BONUM AND EUDAIMONIA

 What is eudaimonia?
• Eudaimonia is a Greek word that means "human flourishing." It is the state of living a good and happy life.
• Augustine believed that eudaimonia is achieved by living in accordance with the virtues and by seeking union with God.
SUMMUM BONUM AND EUDAIMONIA

• Augustine believed that the summum bonum is the ultimate source of eudaimonia. He argued that only by seeking
union with God can we achieve true happiness and fulfillment.
• How to achieve the summum bonum and eudaimonia?
• Augustine believed that the way to achieve the summum bonum and eudaimonia is to live a virtuous life and to seek union
with God.
• He taught that we can live virtuous lives by following the teachings of Jesus Christ and by practicing the cardinal virtues of
prudence, justice, temperance, and fortitude.
• We can seek union with God by praying, reading the Bible, and participating in the sacraments.
SOURCES OF CHRISTIAN ETHICS

 Sacred Scripture
 Tradition
 Magisterium
SOURCES OF CHRISTIAN ETHICS

 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 man to a supernatural end.
 “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)
SOURCES OF CHRISTIAN ETHICS

 Tradition
 It represents the lived wisdom of the Christian community.
 Three meanings of tradition:

 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.
 Tradition as content, is the sum total of appropriated and transmitted Christian experience, out of which
Christians throughout history select the material for renewed syntheses of the faith.
 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.
ST.
AUGUSTINE
ON ETHICS
THE HUMAN PERSON
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 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”
AUGUSTINE’S PERSONAL QUEST FOR HAPPINESS

 Augustine’s way of thinking was “eudemonistic”

 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.
 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 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.
AUGUSTINE’S
PERSONAL QUEST
FOR HAPPINESS
 During their college days and initial
professional careers aspired to be
rich and famous which Augustine
thought could find happiness.
 Augustine’s eudemonistic search
was tied up with fleeting objects
(human vanity in Conf.) of the
present life which are:
 purely human friendship
 sexual gratification
 material wealth
 fame
UNIVERSALITY OF MAN’S DESIRE FOR HAPPINESS

 Augustine believed that the desire for happiness is universal.

 “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”
 UNIVERSALITY OF MAN’S DESIRE FOR HAPPINESS

 In Augustine’s writings, one sees Augustine’s understanding of happiness changed along the course of time:

Happy is he who has what he
wants
• It was enough for man to
possess whatever one
wanted in order to be happy
No one is happy unless he has
all that he wants and wants
nothing that is evil
• 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
bona in se
Happy is he who enjoys the Happiness consists in the
highest good enjoyment of a good other
than which there is nothing
better, which we call the chief
good.
• Augustine now relates • Augustine’s conversion in
happiness to the summum 386 started to indentify that
bonum unless one possessed that
sole and highest good not
subject to change – God,
true happiness is not
attained.
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.
PHILOSOPHICAL INFLUENCES

 EUDAIMONIA
 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 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.
PHILOSOPHICAL INFLUENCES

RATIONALITY

 FOR PLATO
 reason is man’s highest faculty, and one should use it to control man’s lower appetites (desires of the “lower soul” and
of the body).
 FOR ARISTOTLE
 happiness consisted in the observance of the so-called “golden mean” – in avoiding extremes and cultivating virtues.

 THE STOICS
 The Stoics proposed the idea of “apatheia” (often loosely translated as “indifference” to what they considered
“passions”)
PHILOSOPHICAL INFLUENCES

SENSES

 EPICUREANS
 happiness consisted in a life of pleasure

 CYNICS
 happiness consisted in living a life dictated by nature and satisfying the “calls of nature” anywhere and at all times.
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.
What then is the composition of man?
 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).
 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.
 It is hylemorphic ( Gk: hyle + morphe; matter + soul)
 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
THE FALLEN HUMANITY YET REDEEMED BY CHRIST

 Endowed with a rational nature, man is gifted by God with free will.
 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.
IS MAN INHERENTLY EVIL OR INHERENTLY
GOOD?
 For Augustine, man is inherently good since man was created in the Image and Likeness of God. Nevertheless,
because of free will, man is associated with evil which leads us to think that man is evil in nature.
 However, evil does not exist on the same level as that of goodness. It is merely a privation of the good.
EVIL AS PRIVATION

 “Privation” (privatio) is a technical philosophical term that indicates not a simple lack or defect but the absence of
something that is expected to be present.
 It is the absence of the good in a “substance” (substantia) or
 It is something that exists in itself which is supposed to be ontologically (in its nature)“good”.
EVIL AS PRIVATION

 It is in a state of actuality and not sheer potentiality and possesses measure (mensura), form (forma, species), and
order (ordo).
 Evil is not a “substance” but a mere “privation,” evil cannot exist in itself but needs some “substance,” as it were,
to dwell in.
 Everything that exists per se is ontologically “good”
 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
 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.
HYLEMORPHIC THEORY ABOUT THE HUMAN PERSON

 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)
 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)
 The relationship between the body and soul is compared to that of a “sweet marriage” (dulce consortium). Just as
married man and woman take care of each other, so must the soul take care of the body
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
 THE HUMAN BODY AND ITS SENSES

 Augustine speaks of three levels of knowledge or “vision” – namely, “corporeal,” “spiritual,” and “intellectual”

The second level relies on the

corresponding images,
The third level concerns abstract
impressions, or likeness that
The first level requires the actual presence to the realities, meaning, judgment,
such an object has produced in
bodily senses of a perceptible object etc. where true understanding
the memory - hence, the object
takes place.
of perception need not be
present to the bodily senses
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
 It is memory that provides the reason and the will the materials they need for their respective functions.
 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.
ST. AUGUSTINE ON ETHICS
HUMAN FREE WILL AND DIVINE GRACE
AUGUSTINE’S UNDERSTANDING OF FREEWILL

 Free will had been discussed by ancient philosophers long before Augustine’s time
 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
 Augustine states that: “Every tree that God planted in paradise was good. Man did not desire anything evil by
nature; but when man touched the forbidden tree, man departed from what was permissible, thus, committing
an act that was evil.
AUGUSTINE’S UNDERSTANDING OF
FREEWILL

 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 of
obedience and the evil of disobedience

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AUGUSTINE’S CLASSIFICATION OF FREEWILL

 Two types:
 Voluntas recta
 refers to the human will when it is properly directed – that is, focused on what is intrinsically good.

 Voluntas perversa
 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”
AUGUSTINE’S CLASSIFICATION OF FREEWILL

 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.
 Augustine admits the possibility that man may love something that is evil just as 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.
AUGUSTINE’S CLASSIFICATION OF FREEWILL

 A hierarchy of goods exists.

 Material goods are inferior to spiritual goods, and even among spiritual goods, God occupies the highest place.
AUGUSTINE’S CLASSIFICATION OF FREEWILL

 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)
 In this case, the latter would refer to the actual exercise of the former.
ST.
AUGUSTINE
ON ETHICS
PHENOMENOLOGY OF LOVE
WHAT IS LOVE?
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
 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
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”
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 love of God (amor Dei).
 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”
 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.
 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.
VARIOUS OBJECTS LOVE

 Love of God
 Self-Love
 Love our Neighbors
 Love our Body
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.
 God wishes that we love him as our highest good, and this does not at all mean the destruction of ourselves.
 Moreover, to love God means also doing his will and performing his commandments, which is certainly not
merely selfish.
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
 Knowing how to love oneself is to love God
 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
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:
 hey share in the same human nature with us;
 it is God’s commandment to do so;
 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”
 For Augustine, it is impossible to love God without loving our neighbors.
LOVE OF THE BODY

 The human self is a unit of mind and body

 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
 Therefore, the body is not in jail as the result of a sin committed by the soul in another life.
 Care for the body is based on natural love for it.
LOVE OF THE BODY

 DO MARTYRS DISOBEY GOD’S ORDER TO CARE FOR THE BODY IF THEY SACRIFICE THEIR LIFE?
LOVE OF THE BODY

 NO, martyrs overcame this love, but without despising their bodies
LOVE OF THE BODY

 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.
MY LOVE IS MY WEIGHT

 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.
MY LOVE IS MY WEIGHT

 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).
MY LOVE IS MY WEIGHT

 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” 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.
 Augustine developed an ethics that highlighted human integrity
 Integrity included participation in the body of Christ; a required communion with the Church through the love of
neighbor
SUBJECTIVE
AND
OBJECTIVE
MORAL
NORMS
ST. AUGUSTINE ON ETHICS
HUMAN CONSCIENCE

 CONSCIENCE AND INTROSPECTION

 The word “conscience” derives from the Latin term “conscientia,” which in turn comes from the preposition
“cum” (“with”) and the verb “scire” (“to know”) – etymologically means “with knowledge.”
 Ancient Greek thought already adopted its own notion of conscience (called “syneidesis” in Greek). This word
appeared prominently only in the late Hellenistic period when it became an item of colloquial talk. It was
introduced into Christian literature by Paul.
 The original term (syn-eidos) involves the act of sharing (syn) knowledge or a way of understanding things,
and interpreting ideas, etc. (eidos) with one’s self.
 The popular Greco-Roman view held that every person possessed a natural inner law and a consciousness of it
enabling one to make a moral judgment. A conscience is fundamentally an act of self-judgment, a reflexive act
of man which presupposes introspection.
 Man is guided by the dictates of one’s own conscience telling man to do what is good and to avoid evil.
HUMAN CONSCIENCE

 Augustine was a very reflective thinker and underwent an act of introspection. In Augustine’s search for God
beginning from the outside world, then entering into the “self” seeking for God’s images in the soul, and finally
transcending to the self (cf. Conf. 10.6.9).
 It was only then that Augustine encountered God – the Truth by which all things are judged.
 “Do not look outside; return to yourself; in one’s interior where the truth resides; go inside where the light of
reason is illumined” (On True Religion 39.72).
HUMAN CONSCIENCE

 FORMATION OF HUMAN CONSCIENCE

 The act of judging oneself (actions and intentions) presupposes some point of reference.
 Augustine speaks of the Holy Spirit as the author of both the “law of fear” written on stone and the ”law of
love” written on our hearts. Such law is the standard of judgment.
 Man’s exercise of free will (liberum arbitrium) presupposes the existence of conscience and the ability to
judge and discern things.
 The possibility to make an erroneous judgment – when one perceives something intrinsically evil as good or
judges something unjust as just – remains. It is important to form one’s conscience properly.
HUMAN CONSCIENCE

 Christians are expected to form their conscience according to the teachings and examples of Jesus Christ as
contained in the Scripture and according to the teachings of the Church.
 From the time of Augustine’s conversion onwards, he always had very high regard and esteem for the Catholic
Church. Augustine even put it on a higher level compared to the contents of the Bible itself up to the point of
saying that Augustine would not believe in the gospel unless the authority of the Catholic Church moved him to do
so.
 Considering that the Church was the one who decided on which books should be considered as “canonical” and
should be part of the Bible; it was also the Church that tried to faithfully preserve it and defend its contents
throughout the centuries against heretics and schismatics. It was also the Church that provided its proper
interpretation. Christians are expected to live up to the teachings and examples of Christ that would be according
to how the Church interprets them. It is the Church that should guide one in the formation of his/her conscience.
HUMAN CONSCIENCE

 ACQUISITION OF KNOWLEDGE

 Acquisition of knowledge is indispensable when one talks about the formation of conscience. It needs
familiarity with the contents of the Sacred Scripture and with the teachings of the Church as well as critical
thinking in discerning what is true and false, what is good and evil, what is just and unjust, what is
acceptable or not, and so forth.
HUMAN CONSCIENCE

 CULTIVATION OF CHARITY
 “The improving love Augustine calls caritas one derives the word ‘charity.’ The corrosive love Augustine calls
cupiditas, is derived the word ‘cupidity,’ meaning lust or greed. The good life for human beings involves
avoiding cupidity and cultivating charity in its place”.
 These two – caritas and cupiditas – are distinguished by their objects but they are not different kinds of
emotion.
 For Augustine, a man by himself is not capable of cultivating “charity.” Man needs the help of the Holy Spirit.
Augustine quotes Rom 5:5: “The love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit which
has been given to us.”
LAW

 AUGUSTINE ON DECALOGUE
 In Augustine’s works, the Decalogue is not simply the first ten laws but stands for the whole law: “Now this
law was given to the Jews in ten commandments, which they call the Decalogue.”
 Augustine does not give an explanation but hints at the scriptural justifications. In the Old Testament, the two
tablets in the ark of the covenant contain only the Ten Commandments but symbolize the whole law. In the
New Testament Paul refers to the stone tablets or individual commandments from the Ten when writing about
the law.
LAW

 The three ways Augustine writes about the significance of the Decalogue shed light on how it can be
employed in place of the entire law: the most important set of laws, that part of the law which endures
for Christians, and as a summary of the law.
 First, the Ten Commandments are the most important Old Testament commandments. While many Old Testament
commandments are still to be obeyed, there are, “above all, the ten commandments inscribed on those two tablets of stone.”
Viewed negatively, they contain the most serious sins. In a sermon, Augustine calls grave sins those “mentioned in the ten
commandments of the law.”
 Second, the Decalogue endures for Christians. According to Augustine, evil people in the church are those “who lead any life
that the Decalogue condemns and punishes.” This becomes central in defending the Old Testament against the Manichee’s.
 Third, Augustine’s writing against Faust argued that Jesus fulfills or expands rather than replaces the commandments,
focusing on the Decalogue. The Ten Commandments remain in force, the reward attached to following them is different.
Augustine preaches, “The same things are ordered there in the decalogue of the Law as [are ordered] also for us; but not the
same things are promised as for us.” The rules remain the same, but the promise shifts from the physical to the spiritual
realm.
LAW

 St. Augustine is very clear concerning the difference between the law of works and the law of faith. At Mt. Sinai,
the law was given outwardly, written on tablets of stone. Since it was given outwardly, it provoked fear; the carnal
mind cannot be subject to the law, and to the carnal mind (i.e., the mind without the Spirit) the letter of the law
kills.
 In the New Covenant- the law is given inwardly so that we might be justified. St. Augustine avers that God’s law
“is love.” Men are justified by an infusion of grace by the Holy Spirit such that agape (caritas; Christian love or
the highest form of love) is poured out into our hearts.
 This infusion of agape is what is meant by writing the law on our hearts. By this agape, we fulfill the law because
love is the fulfilling of the law.
LAW

 THE LAW OF LOVE (CROSS, 2010)

 “I came not to destroy the law, but to fulfill it” is not understood that Christ by His precepts filled up what was
wanting in the law... This is the New Testament in which the promise of the kingdom of heaven is made to this
love; which was typified in the Old Testament, suitably to the times of that dispensation. So, Christ says again;
“A new commandment I give unto you that you love one another.” (John 13:34)
 St. Augustine is teaching about the role of grace in relation to the law. In what sense did Christ come to fulfill
the law? St. Augustine avers that the law by itself was powerless to bring about righteousness in men because
of our prideful and disobedient hearts. The law is accomplished in us by the grace that comes from Christ, in
those who (by grace) are brought to repentance and humility.
LAW

 How is the law fulfilled by grace? Not by an extra nos (outside) imputation of Christ’s righteousness but by
“acts of obedience,”. Faith works through love fulfilling the law.
 The way Christ fulfills the law is not by imputing an extra nos righteousness to man but by infusing man with
grace and agape such that man fulfills the law in the newness of the Spirit-not by external compulsion, i.e.,
fear of punishment or desire for earthly reward.
 St. Augustine says, “the law was added because of transgression,” (Gal 3:19)
“STOP” PROCESS IN DECISION-MAKING

 S – Search out the facts

Take note of the 5Ws and 1H. Find all the aspects of the situation. Consider all of the areas of circumstances.
 T – Think
Think of alternatives, if any. Alternatives give us choices.
 O – Others
Consider and consult others.
 P - Pray
SINS AND
VIRTUES
SAINT AUGUSTINE ON ETHICS
AUGUSTINE ON SIN

 Augustine’s Definition of Sin

 Sin or peccatum (Latin) in Augustine’s thought refers to the willful misdirection of the love that is fundamental
to the life of the soul. In relation to Augustine’s broader conception of evil (malum), sin is both more specific
and more basic.
 Evil refers to a subversion or corruption of the original order of creation; it takes in ills that are an involuntary
part of human experiences, such as death and disease. Sin strictly speaking is always the expression of a will to
disorder, Augustine came to associate involuntary ills with sin’s penalty (poena peccati).
 Augustine believed that God used afflictions of various kinds- psychological as well as physical to chasten
pride, punish malevolence and in general contain corruption with pain. Without sin there would be no need for
sin’s penalty; there would be neither corruption nor its semblance in creation. “Sin in a human being is
disorder or perversity, that is, an aversion to the more preferable creator, and a conversion to the inferior
creatures.”
AUGUSTINE ON SIN
 Conceptual Understanding of Sin
 For ten years of Augustine’s adult life looks for some illumination of the mystery of evil’s origin from
Manichean adepts, but abandoned this quest when it became clear to Augustine that denigration of the flesh is
limited divine creation to spirit and profaned God’s incarnation in Christ.
 Not long before Augustine’s conversion, Platonists opened Augustine’s eyes to the dimension of spirit beyond
space and time, and the apostle Paul awakened Augustine to the spirit’s humility, the moral of the incarnation.
 No longer tempted to think of good and evil in material terms, Augustine shifted his own reflective center of
gravity from substance to will; from there Augustine articulated a profound psychology of sin as a
combination of “ignorance” and “trouble.”
 Pride (superbia) at the heart of this conception of sin is always a form of arrogation, always ironic: the life the
soul affects to claim one of the independences from God’s love is in reality death. Perverse imitation of God
which sinful love betrays its lack of substance results from trying to combine faithfulness with the aspiration
to love as God loves, wholeheartedly and without fear of loss.
 Augustine defines the will to sin in terms of freedom of choice: “Sin is the will to retain or pursue what justice
forbids, and from which there is freedom to abstain; although if there is no freedom, there is no will.”
Gravity & Capital Sins
AUGUSTINE ON SIN
 The Three Stages of Sin
 The 13th century Dominican theologian Thomas Aquinas informs us (Summa Theologica 2.1. Q. 72 Art. 7): For Augustine
(De Trin. xii, 12) describes three stages of sin, of which the first is "when the carnal sense offers a bait," which is the sin of
thought; the second stage is reached "when one is satisfied with the mere pleasure of thought"; and the third stage, "when
consent is given to the deed.”
 Stage 1: Concupiscence of the Flesh. The senses (e.g. the sight, smell, taste, touch, hearing) perceive something that
causes delight.
 Stage 2: Contemplation (believed to take place in the heart; the actual biological functions of the brain and heart were
not understood until much later), in which the mind delights in the sense impression, and stays with it, rather than
referring it to God, its creator, as Augustine enjoins).
 Stage 3: Consent of the Will. This is when actual sin takes place [some authorities said that it takes place at Stage 2,
even if no overt act follows].
 There were other ways of saying more or less the same thing. For example, Aquinas says right after this: "Gregory (Moral. iv,
25) reckons four degrees of sin; the first of which is "a fault hidden in the heart"; the second, "when it is done openly"; the
third, "when it is formed into a habit"; and the fourth, "when man goes so far as to presume on God's mercy or to give
himself up to despair" "
The 10 Commandments and the Sins Against Them
I am the Lord, thy God, Thou shalt not take the Remember to Keep Holy Honor Your You Shall Not Kill
thou shalt not have strange gods before me. name of the Lord thy the Lord's Day Father and Your
God in vain Mother

Apostasy: leaving the faith of Despair: a refusal to trust that Intentional Exploiting human
Invoking the name of the Engaging in work or Disrespect,
Christ God will provide the grace we Lord with disrespect activities that hinder the unkindness, and homicide (murder, embryos for
Heresy: the deliberate, need in life Blasphemy: insulting worship due to God and disobedience to abortion) disposable
obstinate, denial of one or Envy: resenting another’s language which the joy proper to the parents and Doing anything biological material
more truths of the faith success expresses contempt for Lord’s Day lawful superiors. that with the Euthanasia
Indifferentism: the belief that Sloth: spiritual laziness God and the saints [Legitimate excuses intention of Suicide (grave
one religion is as good as Scandal: bad example that Perjury: Calling on God from Sunday obligation indirectly causing psychological
another could lead others to sin to bear witness to a lie would be: illness, job the death of a disturbances,
Presumption: the belief that Superstition (belief in dreams, Cursing: Calling down obligations and family person anguish, can
one can be saved by one’s own fortune telling, going to some evil on a person, obligations, i.e., a Refusing diminish the
efforts without the grace of spiritists) place or thing. caregiver for an ill assistance to a responsibility of
God, or by God’s grace Sacrilege: mistreating sacred member of the family.] person in danger one committing
without one’s own efforts persons, places or things Formal suicide)
cooperation in an Causing scandal /
abortion Bad example
Kidnapping
/hostage taking
Fighting, anger,
hatred, revenge
Drunkenness
Reckless driving
Mutilation
AUGUSTINE ON VIRTUE

 Augustine’s Definition of Virtue

 The best brief description of virtue according to Augustine is “the ordering of love” (civ. Dei 15.22) or in
Latin: “definition brevis et vera virtutis ordo est amoris”.
 Virtue is thus the means by which moral order is established in human actions directing them to their
appropriate final end.
 This is accomplished in Augustine’s view through the disciplined use of reason: “The perfect reason of man,
which is called virtue, uses, first of all, itself to understand God, in order that it may enjoy him by whom also it
has been.
 For Augustine, virtue is the very essence of the Christian life, providing a clear view of the end to be achieved
and the means to that end. God is love and created in love; the Christian soul returns to God in love by means
of virtue, for virtue is the “ordering of love” (civ. Dei 15.22).
AUGUSTINE ON VIRTUE

 Augustine’s Proper Understanding of the Concept of Virtue

 The distinction between the use of creatures and the enjoyment of God is fundamental to a proper
understanding of the conception of virtue.
 Only God is enjoyed, everything else is useful when ordered to God in reciprocal love. The recognition of the
divine order which is divine love is articulated in the creation and revealed in the Christian faith. It evokes in
the minds and hearts of the believers the loving and disciplined response which is a virtue.

 Augustine on Infused and Cardinal Virtues

 In the light of the Christian faith, the cardinal virtues (prudence, fortitude, temperance, and justice) assume a
subordinate and instrumental position in relation to the infused virtue of faith, hope, and charity. These seven
virtues together with the commandments of God and the Beatitudes of the New Testament constitute a seven-
stage plan for Christian Living in which the virtues play the decisive role.
 AUGUSTINE ON VIRTUE
Infused or Theological Virtues:
 Faith, belief in the unseen, following Isaiah 7:9, “if you will not believe, you shall not understand.” is the beginning of
the temporal life which deals with eternal life.
 Hope, attentive and prayerful waiting or the reward promised by faith, complements faith and reinforces it.
 Charity, the love of God, is the transforming element that gives meaning, cohesion, and direction to the other virtues.
“Wherefore there is no love without hope, no hope without love, and neither love nor hope without faith” (ench.8).
“Nothing is more excellent than this gift of God. It is alone which divides the children of eternal kingdom from the
children of eternal perdition. Other gifts are also bestowed by the Holy Spirit, but without charity they profit nothing.”
Cardinal Virtues:
 Temperance is not only a rational limit upon human acts, but also restraint undertaken for the love of God.
 Justice orders acts according to a divine standard, the Ten Commandments, and the Beatitudes, accepted for the love
of God as the way of love in the world, rather than as merely what is equitable in human terms.
 Prudence weighs the appropriate good in the light of the gospel message, rather than according to what human values
are enhanced and drawn into the work of eternal salvation through the illumination of the supernatural virtues.
 Fortitude is the disposition of the soul which enables us to despise all inconveniences and the loss of things not in our
 AUGUSTINE ON VIRTUE

 Role of Virtues to Christian Life

 The positive role of virtue provides the master plan for a complete Christian life, “the ordering of love,” which
leads those who persevere in it to the final culmination of all hopeful expectations, eternal life with God.
 Virtue is the habit of loving God in accordance with the divine precepts revealed in Scripture for human
guidance.
APPLICATIONS TO SPECIFIC ETHICAL PROBLEMS AND
SOME CONTEMPORARY ISSUES
ST. AUGUSTINE ON ETHICS
DESTRUCTION OF LIFE

 The fifth commandment forbids direct and intentional killing as gravely sinful. the murderer and those who
cooperate voluntarily in murder commit a sin that cries out to heaven for vengeance.
 Infanticide, fratricide, parricide, and the murder of a spouse are especially grave crimes by reason of the
natural bonds which they break. Concern for eugenics or public health cannot justify any murder, even if
commanded by public authority. (CCC, 2268)
DESTRUCTION OF LIFE

 PARRICIDE – Any person who shall kill his father, mother, or child, whether legitimate or illegitimate, or
any of his ascendants, or descendants, or his spouse, shall be guilty of parricide xxx xxx xxx. (Art. 246,
RPC)
DESTRUCTION OF LIFE
 MURDER – Any person who, not falling within parricide, shall kill another, shall be guilty of murder xxx
xxx xxx, if committed with any of the following attendant circumstances:
 With treachery, taking advantage of superior strength, with the aid of armed men, or employing means to weaken the
defense or of means or persons to insure or afford impunity.
 In consideration of a price, rewards, or promise.
 By means of inundation, fire, poison, explosion, shipwreck, stranding of a vessel, derailment or assault upon a street car
or locomotive, fall of an airship, by means of motor vehicles, or with the use of any other means involving great waste
and ruin.
 On occasion of any of the calamities enumerated in the preceding paragraph, or of an earthquake, eruption of a volcano,
destructive cyclone, epidemic or other public calamity.
 With evident premeditation.
 With cruelty, by deliberately and inhumanly augmenting the suffering of the victim, or outraging or scoffing at his person
or corpse. (Art. 248, RPC)
DESTRUCTION OF LIFE
 Treachery; elements:
 The employment of means, method, or manner of execution that would ensure the safety of the malefactor
from the defensive or retaliatory acts of the victim, and
 The means, method, or manner of execution was deliberately or consciously adopted by the offender.
 (The essence of treachery is a deliberate and sudden attack, affording the hapless, unarmed and unsuspecting victim
no chance to resist or to escape.)
 Evident Premeditation; elements:
 The time when the offender determined to commit the crime,
 An act manifestly indicating that he clung to his determination, and
 Sufficient lapse of time between the determination and execution, to allow him to reflect upon the
consequences of his act
DESTRUCTION OF LIFE

 HOMICIDE – Any person who, not falling within parricide, shall kill another without the attendance of any
of the circumstances enumerated in murder, shall be guilty of homicide xxx xxx xxx. (Art. 249, RPC)
DESTRUCTION OF LIFE
CCC RPC
(Legitimate Defense) (Self-Defense)
Love toward oneself remains a fundamental principle of Anyone who acts in defense of his person or rights, provided
morality. Therefore it is legitimate to insist on respect for one's that the following concur:
own right to life. Someone who defends his life is not guilty of 1. Unlawful Aggression
murder even if he is forced to deal his aggressor a lethal blow: 2. Reasonable necessity of the means employed to prevent or
repel it
If a man in self-defense uses more than necessary violence, it 3. Lack of sufficient provocation on the part of the person
will be unlawful: whereas if he repels force with moderation, his defending himself
defense will be lawful.... Nor is it necessary for salvation that a
man omit the act of moderate self-defense to avoid killing the If he acts in defense of his relatives:
other man, since one is bound to take more care of one's own life - 1 and 2 and in case the provocation was given by the person
than of another’s. attacked, that the one making the defense had not part therein

Legitimate defense can be not only a right but a grave duty for Or if he acts in defense of a stranger:
someone responsible for another's life. Preserving the common - 1 and 2 and that the person defending be not induced by
good requires rendering the unjust aggressor unable to inflict revenge, resentment, or other evil motive
harm. To this end, those holding legitimate authority have the
right to repel by armed force aggressors against the civil
community entrusted to their charge.
DESTRUCTION OF LIFE
 Aberratio Ictus
 “Mistake in the blow”; This happens when an offender delivered a blow at an intended victim but landed instead on an
unintended one because of lack of precision.
 A fired his gun at B but missed and hit C instead. A is liable against the attempted homicide/murder against B and also for the
injuries sustained by C.
 Praeter Intentionem
 Unintentional; an injury resulting from an act is greater than the injury intended to be caused.
 A boxed B with the intention of giving him only a lump. But as a result of the jab, B lost his balance, fell, and hit his head on
the hard concrete resulting to his death. A is liable against B for homicide.
 Error in Personae
 ”Mistake in identity”; The offender actually hit someone believing that it is the intended victim but it turned out to be a
different person.
 A wanted to kill B so he followed him to the forest one evening. A then put a sack on the head of B and shot him in the head.
When he removed the sack, it turned out that it was C instead. A is liable for the death of C.
DESTRUCTION OF LIFE

 Suicide
 Suicide contradicts the natural inclination of the human being to preserve and perpetuate his life. It is gravely contrary to the
just love of self. It likewise offends love of neighbor because it unjustly breaks the ties of solidarity with family, nation, and
other human societies to which we continue to have obligations. Suicide is contrary to love for the living God.
 Voluntary co-operation in suicide is contrary to the moral law.
 Grave psychological disturbances, anguish, or grave fear of hardship, suffering, or torture can diminish the responsibility of
the one committing suicide.
DESTRUCTION OF LIFE

 Abortion
 Human life must be respected and protected absolutely from the moment of conception.
 From the first moment of his existence, a human being must be recognized as having the rights of a person -
among which is the inviolable right of every innocent being to life.
 Since the first century the Church has affirmed the moral evil of every procured abortion.
This teaching has not changed and remains unchangeable. Direct abortion, that is to say, abortion willed either
as an end or a means, is gravely contrary to the moral law.
 Infanticide
 Killing a child less than 3 days old
SEXUALITY

 Sexuality affects all aspects of the human person in the unity of his body and soul. It
especially concerns affectivity, the capacity to love and to procreate, and in a more
general way the aptitude for forming bonds of communion with others. (2332, CCC)
SEXUALITY

 Augustine’s discussion of Christian sexual ethics was grounded in his doctrine of creation, sin, and redemption.
 The doctrine of creation led Augustine to the view that God had ordained sexual intercourse from the
beginning to be the means of propagating the human race.
 The doctrine of sin led Augustine to the view that “concupiscence of the flesh” always accompanies sexual
activity and is a symptom of the original sin of Adam and Eve.
 The doctrine of redemption led Augustine to the view that sexual activity and procreation hold different
meanings in different phases of salvation history.
 Augustine held that God had originally created human beings to propagate children through sexual intercourse
(civ. Dei 14.22).
SEXUALITY

 Augustine saw in sexual procreation a specifically social purpose to bond human beings together not only by
generic similarity but also by ties of physical kinship. “For this reason, the first natural bond of human society is
that of husband and wife” (b.conjug.1.1).
 Heterosexual relations for the purpose of procreation possess this normative status, all forms of homosexual
activity, according to Augustine, violate the social purpose of sexual relations, namely for procreative aspect
(conf.3.8.15).
 Augustine considered all non- vaginal forms of sexual intercourse sinful, even between husband and wife, because
they violate the divine order of creation. Augustine even regarded such “unnatural” forms of intercourse within
marriage as worse than extramarital relations because of the sanctity of marriage (b.conjug.11.12).
CHASTITY

 Chastity is the virtue which excludes or moderates the indulgence of the sexual appetite. It is a form of the virtue
of temperance, which controls according to right reason the desire for and use of those things which afford the
greatest sensual pleasures.
 All the baptized are called to chastity. The Christian has "put on Christ,"135 the model for all chastity. All Christ's
faithful are called to lead a chaste life in keeping with their particular states of life. At the moment of his Baptism,
the Christian is pledged to lead his affective life in chastity. (2348, CCC)
 Those who are engaged to marry are called to live chastity in continence. They should see in this time of testing a
discovery of mutual respect, an apprenticeship in fidelity, and the hope of receiving one another from God. They
should reserve for marriage the expressions of affection that belong to married love. They will help each other
grow in chastity. (2350, CCC)
CHASTITY AND HOMOSEXUALITY

 Homosexuality refers to relations between men or between women who experience an exclusive or
predominant sexual attraction toward persons of the same sex. (2357, CCC)
 The number of men and women who have deep-seated homosexual tendencies is not negligible. Xxx
xxx xxx They must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity. Every sign of unjust
discrimination in their regard should be avoided. These persons are called to fulfill God's will in their
lives and, if they are Christians, to unite to the sacrifice of the Lord's Cross the difficulties they may
encounter from their condition. (2358, CCC)
 Homosexual persons are called to chastity. By the virtues of self-mastery that teach them inner
freedom, at times by the support of disinterested friendship, by prayer and sacramental grace, they can
and should gradually and resolutely approach Christian perfection. (2359, CCC)
OFFENSES AGAINST CHASTITY

 Lust is disordered desire for or inordinate enjoyment of sexual pleasure. Sexual pleasure is morally disordered
when sought for itself, isolated from its procreative and unitive purposes.
 By masturbation is to be understood the deliberate stimulation of the genital organs in order to derive sexual
pleasure. Xxx xxx xxx "The deliberate use of the sexual faculty, for whatever reason, outside of marriage is
essentially contrary to its purpose.”
 Pornography consists in removing real or simulated sexual acts from the intimacy of the partners, in order to
display them deliberately to third parties. Xxx xxx xxx It does grave injury to the dignity of its participants
(actors, vendors, the public), since each one becomes an object of base pleasure and illicit profit for others. It
immerses all who are involved in the illusion of a fantasy world.
OFFENSES AGAINST CHASTITY

 Fornication is carnal union between an unmarried man and an unmarried woman. Xxx xxx xxx Moreover, it is a
grave scandal when there is corruption of the young. (2353, CCC)
 Rape is the forcible violation of the sexual intimacy of another person. Xxx xxx xxx It causes grave damage that
can mark the victim for life. It is always an intrinsically evil act. Graver still is the rape of children committed by
parents (incest) or those responsible for the education of the children entrusted to them. (2356, CCC)
 Prostitution does injury to the dignity of the person who engages in it, reducing the person to an instrument of
sexual pleasure. The one who pays sins gravely against himself: he violates the chastity to which his Baptism
pledged him and defiles his body, the temple of the Holy Spirit. (2355, CCC)
Rape by sexual intercourse; elements:
- Offender is any person
- Had carnal knowledge with another
person
- Accomplished
- Using force, threat, or intimidation
- When the offender party is deprived of
reason, or unconscious
- Through fraudulent machination or
grave abuse of authority; and
- When the offender party is under 16
years of age (statutory rape) or
demented
Rape through sexual assault; elements
- Offender commits sexual assault
- Committed by inserting
- His penis into another’s mouth or anus;
or
- Any instrument or object into the
genital or anal orifice
- Accomplished
- Using force or intimidation
- When the woman is deprived of
reason, or unconscious
- Through fraudulent machination or
grave abuse of authority, or when the
victim is under 12 years of age or
demented
ADULTERY

 Adultery refers to marital infidelity. When two partners, of whom at least one is married to another party, have
sexual relations - even transient ones - they commit adultery. Christ condemns even adultery of mere desire. The
sixth commandment and the New Testament forbid adultery absolutely. The prophets denounce the gravity of
adultery; they see it as an image of the sin of idolatry.
ADULTERY
 In order for adultery to exist, there must be a valid
marriage subsisting at the time the sin is committed
 In the Family Code, no marriage shall be valid, unless
these essential requisites are present:
 Legal capacity of the contracting parties who must
be a male and a female; and
 Consent freely given in the presence of the
solemnizing officer
 The formal requisites of marriage are:
 Authority of the solemnizing officer
 A valid marriage license except in the cases
specially provided in the Family Code; and
 A marriage ceremony which takes place with the
appearance of the contracting parties before the
solemnizing officer and their personal declaration
that they take each other as husband and wife in the
presence of not less than two witness of legal age.
 The absence of any of the essential or formal requisites
shall render the marriage void from the beginning,
except those solemnized by any person not legally
authorized to perform marriages unless such marriages
were contracted with either or both parties believing in
good faith that the solemnizing officer had the legal
authority to do so.
 A defect in any of the essential requisites shall not
affect the validity of the marriage but the party or
parties responsible for the irregularity shall be civilly,
criminally and administratively liable.
ADULTERY

In the Catholic Church, for marriage to be valid:

 The couple must be capable of being married
 they must be a woman and a man who are free of any impediment that would
prevent marriage.
 The couple must give their consent to be married
 by an act of their will they irrevocably give and accept one another in order to
establish marriage (Canon 1057).
 They must follow the canonical form for marriage
 they must be married according to the laws of the Church
ADULTERY
 The following are impediments that nullify a Catholic marriage:
 Lack of proper age (either that of the state’s law or the canon law)
 Certain physical defects (impotency [cannot have sex] and sterility [can have sex but cannot procreate])
 Bond of a previous marriage
 Disparity of worship
 Holy Orders
 Solemn vows
 Abduction
 Crime
 Blood relationship; all in the direct line, and the third degree in the collateral line
 Affinity or relationship through marriage to all in the direct line, and to the second degree in the collateral line
 Public decorum
 Spiritual relationship (between the baptizer and the baptized or between the ninang/ninong and the hijado/hijada
 Legal adoption

ADULTERY
- There is a married woman
- She had sexual intercourse with a
man not her husband
- As to the paramour, that he knows
the woman is married.
Forms of adultery in the RPC
CONCUBINAGE
Acts Punished:
- Keeping a mistress in the conjugal
dwelling
- Having sexual intercourse, under
scandalous circumstances, with a
woman not his wife
- Cohabiting with her in any other
place
BIGAMY
- Offender has been legally married
- Marriage has not yet been legally
dissolved or, in case his or her
spouse is absent, the absent spouse
could not yet be presumed dead
- Contracts a second or subsequent
marriage
- Such marriage is deemed valid

Elements:
- There is a married man
- He committed any of the acts
punished
- As to the concubine, that she
knows the man to be married
PROPERTY
 Theft; elements: caused by them.
 Taking of personal property  Enter an enclosed estate or a field where trespass is
 Belonging to another forbidden and without consent, hunt or fish upon the same
or gather fruits, cereals or other forest or farm products.
 Done with intent to gain
 Without the consent of the owner
 Robbery; elements:
 Be accomplished without violence against or, intimidation
 There be personal property belonging to another
of persons, or force upon things
 There is unlawful taking of that property with intent to
 Who are liable for theft:
gain
 With intent to gain, but without violence against or
 Violence against or intimidation of any person, or force
intimidation of persons nor force upon things, take,
upon things.
personal property, of another, without the latter's consent.
 Having found lost property, fail to deliver same to the
local authorities or its owner.
 After having maliciously damaged the property of another,
remove or make use of the fruits or object of the damage
HUMAN RELATIONS
 Libel  Slander by deed: Slander not done orally but in the
 There must be an imputation of a crime, or of a vice or presence of other person/s which also casts dishonor,
defect, real or imaginary, or any act, omission, status or discredit or contempt upon the offended party.
circumstance.  ”Putang ina mo” Principle: The words “putang ina
 The imputation is made publicly mo” are common expression in the dialect that is often
 It is malicious employed, not really to slander but rather to express
anger or displeasure. It is seldom, if ever, taken in its
 Directed to a natural or juridical person, or one who is
literal sense by the hearer, that is, as a reflection on the
dead
virtues of a mother. (Reyes v. People) Thus, the
 Must tend to cause the dishonor, discredit or contempt of
statement “Putang ina mo! Limang daan na ba ito?”
the person defamed made by the accused cannot be considered as
 Slander slanderous. (Martinez v. People).
 Two kind: Simple and Grave  Of course, we must not get used to such and other similar
terms.1
 Gravity is determined through expression used; personal
relations between the parties; circumstances, i.e. social
standing and position of offended party.
1 Italics mine.
PERSONS LIABLE FOR THE COMMISSION OF A SIN

 Sin is a personal act. Moreover, we have a responsibility for the sins committed by others
when we cooperate in them:
 by participating directly and voluntarily in them;
 by ordering, advising, praising, or approving them;
 by not disclosing or not hindering them when we have an obligation to do so;
 by protecting evil-doers. (1868, CCC)
 PERSONS LIABLE FOR THE COMMISSION OF A SIN
 Principals
 Those who actually committed the sin
 Those who agreed to commit the sin and likewise
committed it
 Those who participated before, during, or after the
commission of a sin
 Principal by direct participation: directly participated in
the sin
 Principal by inducement: induced to commit the sin by
prize, reward, promise, intimidation, force, etc.
 Principal by indispensable cooperation: one whose
presence is needed for the sin to be committed
 Accomplices
 Those who participated only after the principal sinners
agreed to commit the sin
 They participated before or during the commission of
the sin
 They are not the authors of the sin unlike the principal
 They supply the principal with material and moral aid
in the execution of the sin
 Their acts bore a direct relation with the acts of the
principal
 Accessories
 Participated only after the commission of the crime
 One who had no knowledge of the sin and did not
participate as principal or accomplice
 Took part in its commission by:
 Profiting oneself or assisting the offender to profit
from the effects
 Concealing or destroying the evidence of the sin
 Harboring, conceding or assisting the escape of the
principal and/or accomplice
NEGLIGENCE

 The condition of not heeding. Considered as the omission, whether habitual or not, of the
care required for the performance of duties, or at any rate, for their full adequate
discharge.
 In the teaching of St. Thomas, it is rated not only as a characteristic discernible in the
commission of all sins, but also as a special sin in itself. Its particular deformity he judges
to be the imputable lack of satisfying such solicitude as is here and now demanded for the
satisfying of obligations.
 Opposite of negligence is prudence and diligence
SOME CONCEPTS

 Doctrine of Proximate Cause

 The cause which, in natural or continuous sequence, unbroken by any efficient or intervening cause, produces injury, and
without which the result would not have occurred.
 Doctrine of Last Clear Chance
 Both parties are negligent; the negligence act of one is appreciable later in time than that of the other, or when it is impossible
to determine who’s at fault; the one who had the last clear chance to avoid the impending harm and failed to do so is
chargeable.
 Emergency Doctrine
 Where the situation arises to confront the actor is sudden and unexpected, and such as to deprive him of all opportunity for
deliberation, the consequence would not be blamed against him. This doctrine cannot be applied together with the doctrine of
last clear chance.
HUMANITY’S
ULTIMATE END
AND
ESCHATOLOGY
ST. AUGUSTINE ON ETHICS
USING THE WORLD WHILE HEADING TOWARDS THE END

 Augustine’s Understanding of Man’s ultimate end

 “You have made us for yourself, and our heart is restless until it rests in you” (Conf. 1.1). This famous
Augustinian line presents to us man’s ultimate end.
 Man desires eternal rest with God since only then will man enjoy true and lasting happiness. It is a state of
“Sabbath that has no evening” (The City of God 22.30).
 As man makes its way towards the ultimate end who is God, the possession of whom alone can give man true
and lasting happiness, man must learn how to live well in the present world.
 Augustine distinguishes between “uti” and “frui,” to remind us that the material things of this world are meant
to be only used in view of one’s ultimate goal, and not enjoyed in themselves (cf. The City of God)
 Enjoyment is clinging to something lovingly for its own sake which should be reserved for God alone. The
rest (including ourselves) fall under the category of “uti” or means to obtain enjoyment with God.
 Augustine seems to have changed their view as to whether humans should fall under the category of “uti” and
asserted that one should love people for their own sake as well as for the sake of God (Kent, 2001).
USING THE WORLD WHILE HEADING TOWARDS THE END

 Augustine’s Counsel Regarding the Hindrances of the Ultimate End

 Human persons fall into depravity when they regard creatures or themselves or worldly states or situations as
objects of enjoyment and take God’s graces as mere objects to be used.
 Augustine also gives us another understanding of what evil is: “The deed is the evil thing, not the thing of
which the sinner makes an evil use. Evil is making a bad use of a good thing ... worshipped and served the
creature rather than the Creator” (On the Nature of the Good 34).
DEATH AND IMMORTALITY

 Augustine’s on Immortality
 Regarding the question of immortality, Augustine considers it a prerequisite for true happiness (Kent, 2001).
The human body at the end of time, Augustine says is not “incapable of dying” (The City of God 13.24).
 In the creation account in the book of Genesis, God gave a possibility that man would have lived forever if
man only followed God’s instruction not to eat the fruit of the “tree of the knowledge of good and evil” (cf.
Gen 2:17). The African bishop distinguishes between two types of body– an “animal body” and a “spiritual
body” (The City of God 13.24). The former was capable of dying; the other was not.
 Adam also possessed a “body” while in Paradise, but the Creator called Adam to avoid dying instead. Adam
was called to live, not to die. But sin entered the scene and rendered the primordial man’s “animal body” now
subject to death instead.
DEATH AND IMMORTALITY

 The implication of all this is that while the death of our “animal body” is inevitable, man will still enjoy
immortality in virtue of his/her possession of a “spiritual body.”
 Man, simply have to allow God to breathe the life-giving Spirit into man and live according to God’s standards
instead of living in a carnal way or according to the standards of man (cf. The City of God 14.4).
DEATH AND IMMORTALITY

 The “flesh” should not be identified with the “animal body” subject to carnal corruptibility. The term can refer to a
man. (cf. The City of God 14.4) or to the original substance or nature created by God for a man (cf. The City of
God 13.24).
 Augustine distinguishes between the “flesh” before man’s Fall and the “flesh” after the Fall (cf. The City of God
21.8).
 Prior to the Fall, the human body would have operated in full harmony with the human mind and in complete conformity
with the human will (Hunter: 358). Having been created by God as man’s “natural substance,” the “flesh” is not evil in itself.
 Man is currently in a state of pilgrimage in this world where man is subject to various passions or emotions because of our
possession of an “animal body” (cf. The City of God 14.3; 21.3).
 If man had not sinned, then man’s body would not have been corruptible, and it would not weigh the soul down.
The “flesh” would not be corruptible if the soul had not sinned through improper use of its free will.
DEATH AND IMMORTALITY

 Augustine’s on Death
 Augustine speaks of two types of death – that of the body and that of the soul. The former takes place when the
soul leaves the earthly body (= separation between body and soul), while the latter happens when the soul
alienates from the life of God and sins (cf. The City of God 6.12; 13.2; 13.15; 19.28; 20.6).
 The first death is temporary and is the common lot of mankind, while the second death will last for eternity (cf.
The City of God 13.8; 13.14). Those rescued by God’s grace will be spared from the second death. (cf. The
City of God 13.23).
 The second death is more grievous, “it is the worst of all evils,” Augustine says (The City of God 13.11).
DEATH AND IMMORTALITY

 Just as there are two types of death, there are also two kinds of resurrection – a first and a second one.
 The first is the resurrection of mercy, the other is the resurrection of judgment” (The City of God 20.6).
 Corresponding with these two resurrections are two judgments – the first one takes place at the moment of a
person’s death -a judgment “in the meantime,” while the second one will take place at the end of the world –
called the “last” or “final” judgment (The City of God 20.1).
 All men will be judged based on “the particular actions of individuals performed by the decision of their will”
(The City of God 20.1), whether one resisted or obeyed the truth or participated or not in the “true religion” (The
City of God 20.3).
RESURRECTION OF THE BODY

 Augustine on the Resurrection of the Body

 The first resurrection is “the resurrection of souls” alone and not yet of the body (cf. The City of God 20.6).
This happens at the moment of one’s death in this world when the soul departs from the body. Right there and
then the souls will be judged. Both the souls of the blessed and of the damned will still have to wait for the
second resurrection – that of their bodies.
 At the second resurrection, both the living and the dead will be judged. Those souls which during the first
resurrection, were found blessed, will then be united with their resurrected bodies- restored to incorruptibility
(cf. The City of God 14.10), and enjoy eternal happiness with both their bodies and souls, while the damned
souls will be joined with their bodies and both will be sent to eternal punishment (cf. The City of God 13.12).
 For those who will still be found alive during Judgment Day, Augustine believes that they will experience a
swift death, like in a blink of an eye in order to be resurrected along with the rest.
RESURRECTION OF THE BODY

 Augustine’s Philosophical View of the Body & Soul

 The Platonic teaches that the souls of men after death eventually return to the body either that of men or that of
beasts.
 Porphyry refused to believe that the human soul could return to the body of an animal and even entertained the
idea that the soul may not have to return to the body at all once it had been completely purified of all evils (cf.
The City of God 10.30).
 Augustine preferred Porphyry’s theory but Augustine does see a possible point of reconciliation between Plato
and Plotinus in this: the former’s belief in the soul’s return to a body and the latter’s stand that it is possible for
the soul to live forever in felicity without having to return to the evils of the world.
 The Christian faith can accept both in the sense that the soul, indeed, will ultimately be joined to a body – the
“spiritual body” freed from corruptibility – and enjoy unending happiness deprived of any evil.
RESURRECTION OF THE BODY

 The Bishop of Hippo also finds no contradiction in affirming both the soul’s desire for happiness and its
resurrection and the resurrection of the body and in the idea that “the perfect bliss of the soul comes only when
it has been completely stripped of the body and returns to God” (The City of God 13.16).
 True happiness consists in possession of the Highest Good (summum bonum), which is the combination of
goods both the body and the soul (cf. The City of God 19.3).
 It is the corruptible body that burdens the soul. It is this type of body that must inevitably disintegrate and
perish and return to the earth upon man’s death (cf. The City of God 13.17).
 The “spiritual body” (The City of God 13.23), which God will restore to all of us on Judgment Day. Our
“animal body” will then become “spiritual as a reward for obedience” (The City of God 13.23).
RESURRECTION OF THE BODY

 “Our nature will be healed by immortality and incorruption and will have no perverted elements” (The City of
God 19.27; 20.16- 17).
 Man’s flesh will be renewed and made exempt from decay (cf. The City of God 20.5; 21.8; 22.24; 22.30).
Man’s bodies will no longer have any defects (cf. The City of God 22.17; cf. Ellingsen, 2005) and will possess
perfect beauty (cf. The City of God 22.19; 22.20).
 It is not necessary for the achievement of happiness to avoid every kind of body, but only bodies which are
corruptible, burdensome, and in a dying state
 Real happiness which all men desire – cannot be achieved in the present life (cf. The City of God 19.4).
ETERNAL HAPPINESS AND ETERNAL DAMNATION

 Augustine’s on Eternal Happiness

 Augustine says that “in the resurrection of the body for eternal life, the body will have the size and dimensions
which it had attained or was to attain at maturity, according to the design implanted in the body of each person,
with its appropriate beauty preserved also in the proportions of all the parts”
ETERNAL HAPPINESS AND ETERNAL DAMNATION

DOES THIS MEAN THAT IF WE ARE RESURRECTED AT

THE END, WE WILL POSSESS THE BODY THAT WE
HAVE AT THE TIME OF OUR DEATH?
ETERNAL HAPPINESS AND ETERNAL DAMNATION

 NO.

 “All human beings will rise again with a body of the same size as they had, or would have had, in the prime
of life” (The City of God 22.16), possessing “the stature which one had in its prime” or “the stature one
would have attained” (The City of God 22.15), “that maturity they would have attained by the slow lapse of
time” (The City of God 22.14).
 The bodies will retain their respective sexes but will all be free of the necessity of intercourse and childbirth
as the lust of the present life will disappear (cf. The City of God 22.17). And all will be fully satisfied
notwithstanding the difference in merits, “just as in the body the finger does not wish to be the eye” (The
City of God 22.30).
ETERNAL HAPPINESS AND ETERNAL DAMNATION

 Augustine’s on Eternal Damnation

 Augustine upholds the teaching of the Catholic Church affirming the eternal suffering of both body and soul
after Judgment Day. The two will be joined again at the end of time (cf. The City of God 21.3). In the present
world, pains of the flesh are really paining of the soul, experienced in the flesh. It feels no pain apart from the
soul (cf. The City of God 14.15; 21.3).
 This will not be the case in the future. The punishment of the wicked will be both by “fire and worm” – that is,
“the fire to the body in the literal sense, and the worm to the soul in the metaphorical sense” (The City of God
20.22; 21.9; Mt 9:42ff.). The African bishop is convinced that the human body is capable of avoiding
disintegration by death and even persisting in fire (cf. The City of God 21.2).
 The African bishop is convinced that the human body is capable of avoiding disintegration by death and even
persisting in fire (cf. The City of God 21.2).
ETERNAL HAPPINESS AND ETERNAL DAMNATION

 Augustine asserts: “the fact that the bodies of the damned will feel pain does not entail that they will be capable of
dying” (The City of God 21.3); “not everything susceptible to pain is capable of death” (The City of God 21.4)
 What one knows of the human body in the present life does not exclude the possibility that it will be of a totally
different type in the future. The human “flesh” was differently constituted before Adam’s Fall; it was then capable
of not dying.
 The human “flesh” was differently constituted before Adam’s Fall; it was then capable of not dying. “By the same
token at the resurrection of the dead it will be differently constituted from the flesh as it is known to us” (The City
of God 21.8).
 It may be something incomprehensible to us at present, Augustine explains: “the fact that a rational explanation
cannot be given for something does not mean that it could not have happened in the past or that it could not
happen in the future” (The City of God 21.5).
END OF ASF 3

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