A Comperative Study: Original Sin on The View Between Augustine and Neo-Plaonism

Abstract

The doctrine of Original Sin has been debated for centuries among the Theologians includeAugustine. The Understanding of doctrine original sin as a theological term started from theteaching of Augustine around 5century B.C. Augustine‗s understanding regarding original sinderived from his problem and his question concerning the life of Adam and Eve, andparticularly in his youth experiences of adultery. He believed that all men involved inAdam‘s first sin and original sin was transmitted through the parents to their children.Augustine learned Manichaeism, however, he did not satisfied and then he went to learnedNeo-Platonism and deeply impressed to him both for his Neo-Platonism and the Christianlife. In Neo-Platonism, Augustine respect and received the Plotinus views. For NeoPlatonism, the root of sin is discovered in the very nature of the soul and in relation to thebody as self- isolation. Before it enters the body, the soul has a prior existence. When thesouls fall and that is how it comes to be in the body. But the point is that the soul has anunruly and evil nature in its irrational parts even before it enters the body so that it in onesense the cause of evil is present even in the soul preexistence state. Neo-Platonist believedthat original sin is transmitted from one to another, Neo-Platonism underscored this notion bysuggesting that in addition to such a transmission of evil, human souls would reappear viatransmigration, bringing to the new body their earlier errors and judgments of value.Therefore, this study is to analyze and to compare Augustine‘s view as a theologian of theoriginal sin with the Neo-Platonism concept.