“Free will, without which no one can live rightly, is a good and divine gift.” (Augustine 65). In the book, On the Free Choice of the Will, Augustine argues that humanity’s will, which is given by God, is indeed free. As the book proclaims, free will is something that has the ability to produce righteousness and happiness; it is a gift that produces peace and prosperity. Yet, at the same time, there is the possibility of the will to be fixed on the all too enticing temptations of this world. Throughout his explanation of the warring sides of the free will, Augustine artfully discusses how the world we live in, our sinful nature, and the faithful and just qualities of God interacts with the decisions that we make. His ultimate point is to distinctly
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Ultimately, the decisions that we make are entirely based upon the way in which we direct our sight. Augustine first outlines the fact that God is the creator of all good, because he is the ultimate good. Some people have objected that God is in fact the one that causes the people to sin. But “if all good things come from God”, and the “movement [of] turning away from the Lord God is undoubtedly sin, surely we cannot say that God is the cause of sin.” (Augustine 64 & 69). In accordance with this, he says that “a perverse will is the cause of all evils.” (Augustine 104). The establishment of the point that the real evil “is the turning of the will away from the unchangeable good and toward changeable goods,” rather than the actual goods themselves is paramount to Augustine’s argument (Augustine 68). This coincides with the idea of disordered loves, which is explained as the worship of God, the highest good, becoming forsaken for the worship of lesser goods. Augustine also introduces the problem of original sin, that is, the sin nature that Adam and Eve introduced and imposed upon all of humanity when they sinned and then were deposed from their perfect forms in Eden. This is no fault of God’s, in fact, He gave direct instructions on how Adam and Eve were to navigate The Garden. Yet, instead of …show more content…
This results in a vision for the afterlife, which shows the newfound godly affinity that is found through grace. “The more you love existence, the more you will desire eternal life, and so the more you will long to be refashioned so that your affections are no longer temporal, branded upon you by the love of temporal things that are nothing before they exist, and then, once they do exist, flee from existence until they exist no more.” (Augustine 85). In On the Free Choice of the Will, Augustine describes how clinging to the changeable good of God’s creatures only leads to deep despair and sadness, and sometimes leads to suicide. But the one who turns towards God’s precepts and promises are guaranteed a happiness that surpasses the fleeting pleasure of sin. “The happy life, that is, the disposition of a soul that cleaves to the unchangeable good, is the proper and principal good for a human being. It contains all the virtues, which no one can use wrongly.” (Augustine 68). It is God’s ultimate intention for those He has predestined, and therefore whom He has called, to adhere to the road on which he has originally created them for. “We must believe what is past, and what is yet to come, as far is sufficient for our journey towards eternal things. This discipline of faith is governed by divine mercy, so that it has
Ultimately, the decisions that we make are entirely based upon the way in which we direct our sight. Augustine first outlines the fact that God is the creator of all good, because he is the ultimate good. Some people have objected that God is in fact the one that causes the people to sin. But “if all good things come from God”, and the “movement [of] turning away from the Lord God is undoubtedly sin, surely we cannot say that God is the cause of sin.” (Augustine 64 & 69). In accordance with this, he says that “a perverse will is the cause of all evils.” (Augustine 104). The establishment of the point that the real evil “is the turning of the will away from the unchangeable good and toward changeable goods,” rather than the actual goods themselves is paramount to Augustine’s argument (Augustine 68). This coincides with the idea of disordered loves, which is explained as the worship of God, the highest good, becoming forsaken for the worship of lesser goods. Augustine also introduces the problem of original sin, that is, the sin nature that Adam and Eve introduced and imposed upon all of humanity when they sinned and then were deposed from their perfect forms in Eden. This is no fault of God’s, in fact, He gave direct instructions on how Adam and Eve were to navigate The Garden. Yet, instead of …show more content…
This results in a vision for the afterlife, which shows the newfound godly affinity that is found through grace. “The more you love existence, the more you will desire eternal life, and so the more you will long to be refashioned so that your affections are no longer temporal, branded upon you by the love of temporal things that are nothing before they exist, and then, once they do exist, flee from existence until they exist no more.” (Augustine 85). In On the Free Choice of the Will, Augustine describes how clinging to the changeable good of God’s creatures only leads to deep despair and sadness, and sometimes leads to suicide. But the one who turns towards God’s precepts and promises are guaranteed a happiness that surpasses the fleeting pleasure of sin. “The happy life, that is, the disposition of a soul that cleaves to the unchangeable good, is the proper and principal good for a human being. It contains all the virtues, which no one can use wrongly.” (Augustine 68). It is God’s ultimate intention for those He has predestined, and therefore whom He has called, to adhere to the road on which he has originally created them for. “We must believe what is past, and what is yet to come, as far is sufficient for our journey towards eternal things. This discipline of faith is governed by divine mercy, so that it has