Abstract
Augustine famously summarizes all of ethics in the maxim, “Love and do what you want” in his Homilies on the First Epistle of John, but also describes sin as misdirected love and humanity as characterized by sin. This raises the question as to how Augustine can offer such a maxim given humanity’s tendency to love so poorly. Aimed at ethicists and theologians with only a general knowledge of Augustine, this paper examines Augustine’s approach to ethics and its relationship to his theology of the Holy Spirit. By exploring the ordo amoris, the uti/frui distinction, and the doctrine of the Spirit as the inner-Trinitarian Love of the Father and the Son, I attempt to show how Augustine’s maxim can fit with his hamartiology.
Highlights
IntroductionPublisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations
To explore either Augustine’s doctrine of the Spirit or his approach to ethics fully is clearly beyond the scope of this article, but I hope that breadth and consequent lack of depth of my topic is appropriate for a special issue such as this one
Augustine points out that the greatest commands teach us that there exists a hierarchy of loves and that having that hierarchy firmly in place is essential for any proper ethical act
Summary
Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Despite what one might think in light of such a strong interest in guilt and sinfulness, Augustine was not a man plagued by insecurity and self-loathing, not one who thought his sins were especially wicked Rather, he saw himself as he saw all humanity—broken and in need of repair, lost and in need of salvation. The answer lies not in Augustine’s anthropology but in his Pneumatology, for the good is not a merely a principle or a power for Augustine; it is the living person of the Holy Spirit. This Pneumatological love ethic helps unite his moral and theological doctrines and provides important clarification for some of Augustine’s more controversial ethical positions as well as correctives and helpful direction for contemporary virtue ethics. To explore either Augustine’s doctrine of the Spirit or his approach to ethics fully is clearly beyond the scope of this article, but I hope that breadth and consequent lack of depth of my topic is appropriate for a special issue such as this one
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