Original Sin as the Evil Inclination–A Polemicist's Appreciation of Human Nature

1980 ◽  
Vol 73 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 495-520 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeremy Cohen
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
Human Nature ◽  
Original Sin ◽  
Christian Theology ◽  
Religious Communities ◽  
Religious Thought ◽  
Large Measure ◽  
History Of ◽  
Methodological Shortcoming

Studies on the essence and development of the concept of original sin abound. Not only has this fundamental tenet of Christian theology played an important role in the history of Western religious thought, but it continues to command the attention of scholars and theologians even today. Given this great interest, one is occasionally surprised at the narrowness of the historical and religious framework to which many have confined their discussions of original sin. All too often, scholars have overlooked the significance which events within the community they are examining or parallel developments in other religious communities might have for explicating a new direction in the history of this doctrine. While the present study can hope neither to reformulate the findings of the voluminous literature on original sin nor to compensate in large measure for this methodological shortcoming at times inherent in it, it will attempt to demonstrate by example how the notion of original sin did not evolve in a historical vacuum. It both drew from and contributed to prevalent philosophical and political theory, and it even interacted significantly with non-Christian religious concepts.

scholarly journals El deseo natural de libertad y la inacción política. Una crítica al significado de la servidumbre voluntaria y la libertad natural en el Discurso de Étienne de la Boétie / The Natural Desire of Freedom and Political Inaction: A critique of the meaning of voluntary servitude and natural freedom in the Discourse of Étienne de la Boétie

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 65-74
Author(s):  
Jesús Fernández Muñoz
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
Human Nature ◽  
Critical Analysis ◽  
General Introduction ◽  
Political Ideas ◽  
Etienne De La Boetie ◽  
History Of ◽  
Voluntary Servitude

ABSTRACTThe objective of this paper is the critical analysis of the concept of “voluntary servitude”; and its implications for the freedom posed by Étienne de la Boétie and its relation to the natural desire for freedom. In particular, some ideas from the Discourses of servitude volontaire (1576) are analyzed, starting with a general introduction and the implications of the work in the history of political ideas. The central part of this paper focuses on the problem that society desire to serve, in other words: the desire for slavery and rejection of freedom. For La Boétie, these ideas go against human nature. These problems are those that are discussed from a political theory that goes against the “monolithic thinking”; and that highlights some of the author’s conceptual errors from the perspective of “political”; and the irrelevance of standards of perfection for a feasible political-social organization.RESUMENEl objetivo de este artículo es el análisis crítico del concepto de “servidumbre voluntaria” y sus implicaciones para la libertad que plantea Étienne de la Boétie y su relación con el deseo natural de libertad. En particular se analizan algunas ideas de la obra Discours de la servitude volontaire (1576) comenzando por una introducción general y las implicaciones de la obra en la historia de las ideas políticas. La parte central radica en el problema que plantea para la sociedad el deseo de servir de los hombres o, en otras palabras: el deseo de esclavitud y rechazo de la libertad. Todo ello va contra la naturaleza humana según La Boétie. Estos problemas son los que se discuten a partir de un planteamiento de teoría política que va contra el “pensamiento único” y que destaca algunos de los errores conceptuales del autor desde la óptica de la “realidad política” y la poca relevancia que tienen los estándares de perfección para una organización político-social factible.

“Non potest non peccare”: Karl Barth on original sin and the bondage of the will

2018 ◽  
Vol 60 (2) ◽  
pp. 185-207
Author(s):  
Shao Kai Tseng
Keyword(s):  
Human Nature ◽  
Original Sin ◽  
Karl Barth ◽  
Human Being ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Church Dogmatics ◽  
Historical Condition ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Will

Summary This article offers an exposition of Karl Barth’s actualistic reorientation of the Augustinian notions of original sin and the bondage of the will in § 60 and § 65 of Church Dogmatics IV/1–2. Barth redefines human nature as a total determination of the human being (Sein/Dasein) “from above” by the covenantal history of reconciliation. Human nature as such remains totally intact in the historical state of sin. The human being, however, is also determined “from below” by the Adamic world-history of total corruption. With this dialectical construal of sin and human nature, Barth redefines original sin as the radically sinful activities and decisions that determine the confinement of human beings to the historical condition of fallenness. Barth also challenges the famous Augustinian account of the bondage of the will to which original sin gives rise, and uses the present active indicative to express his actualistic reorientation of the Augustinian notion of the bondage: “non potest non peccare”.

Introduction

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Sagar
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
Human Nature ◽  
David Hume ◽  
Adam Smith ◽  
History Of Political Thought ◽  
Treatise Of Human Nature ◽  
The Family ◽  
History Of ◽  
Over Time

This book examines how David Hume and Adam Smith forged a new way of thinking about the modern state. It considers what Hume referred to as the opinion of mankind, a political theory found in the second and third books of A Treatise of Human Nature. Smith read and absorbed Hume's arguments, adapting them to his own purposes in the construction of a political theory that would move beyond the Treatise. Both Hume and Smith rejected Thomas Hobbes's vision of human nature and his arguments about our capacity to form stable societies over time. The book discusses Hume's theory of sociability, the role of history and the family in debates over human sociability and the foundations of politics, and Smith's theory of regime forms. This introduction provides an overview of the theory of the state and the history of political thought.

scholarly journals The Genesis of St. Augustine's Idea of Original Sin

1917 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 159-175 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ernesto Bonaiuti
Keyword(s):  
Original Sin ◽  
The Other ◽  
Christian Theology ◽  
Spiritual Life ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
Freedom Of The Will ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Will ◽  
Catholic Tradition

The thought of Augustine on the two ethical categories of sin and grace is of great importance in the history of Christian theology. His system of grace and predestination prevailed for many centuries, although not without strong opposition, and underwent, through scholastic elaboration, substantial changes in order to save the freedom of the will; and finally it reappeared in the conception of the spiritual life shaped by Luther and the other teachers of the Reformation. It is on account of his doctrine about grace and predestination that Protestant theologians like to call Augustine “der Paulus nach Paulus und der Luther vor Luther.” Whatever may be the exactness of this genealogy, it shows at least the value and efficacy of the Augustinian conception of the natural and supernatural life on the development of the European spirit. In the Catholic tradition this thought of Augustine is at the very basis of the ethical, ecclesiological, and sacramental systems; in the Christian but non-Catholic movements this doctrine, interpreted in a rather paradoxical way, gave a starting-point to the Reformation.

scholarly journals Human nature and stasis: On the influence of Thucydides on Hobbes’s science of politics

2016 ◽  
pp. 689-707
Author(s):  
Vladimir Milisavljevic
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Political Theory ◽  
Human Nature ◽  
Historical Narrative ◽  
Main Argument ◽  
Peloponnesian War ◽  
Conception Of Man ◽  
History Of ◽  
Civil Science ◽  
True Knowledge

This paper assesses the influence of Thucydides on Hobbes?s conception of man and, more generally, on his model of ?Civil Science?. This influence can be traced back to the time when Hobbes worked on his translation of Thucydides?s history of the Peloponnesian War. Already at that time, Hobbes characterized Thucydides as the ?the most politic historiographer that ever writ?, i.e. the historian whose work contributed the most to the true knowledge of politics. The main argument of the paper is that Hobbes?s admiration for the author of the History of the Peloponnesian War can be best explained by Thucydides?s ability to portray the essential conflictuality of politics. This thesis is confirmed by a comparative analysis of some important themes in Thucydides?s historical narrative and several major theoretical statements of Hobbes?s anthropology and political theory. There is an unmistakable similarity, which has often been commented on, between Hobbes?s account of the three principal causes of conflict between individuals in the state of nature - Competition, Diffidence and Glory - and the three main human instincts to which the Athenians appeal, in a speech that Thucydides conveys, to justify their striving for power. However, Thucydides influenced Hobbes mostly by his descriptions of internal war. The final part of the article examines in this light two topics from Thucydides?s famous description of the stasis which took place in Corcyra - the impossibility of justice and the perversion of language in time of sedition in the polis.

Pascal: Reasoning and Belief

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Moriarty
Keyword(s):  
Human Nature ◽  
Human Condition ◽  
The Self ◽  
Original Sin ◽  
Critical Examination ◽  
Christian Belief ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Christian Morality ◽  
History Of ◽  
Truth Claims

The book is a study of Pascal’s defence of Christian belief in the Pensées. It aims to expound, and in places to criticize, what it argues (drawing on existing scholarship about the history of the text) is a coherent and original apologetic strategy. It sets out the basic philosophical and theological presuppositions of his project, drawing the distinction between convictions attained by reason and those inspired by God-given faith. It sets out his view of the contradictions within human nature, between the ‘wretchedness’ (our inability to live the life of reason, to attain secure and durable happiness) and the ‘greatness’ (the power of thought, manifested in the very awareness of our wretchedness). His mind–body dualism and his mechanistic conception of non-human animals are discussed. Pascal invokes the biblical story of the Fall and the doctrine of original sin as the only credible explanation of these contradictions. His analysis of human occupations as powered by the twin desire to escape from painful thoughts and to gratify one’s vanity is subjected to critical examination, as is his conception of the self and self-love. Pascal argues that, just as Christianity propounds the only explanation for the human condition, so it offers the only kind of happiness that would satisfy our deepest longings. He thus argues that we have an interest in investigating its truth-claims as rooted in the Bible and in history. The closing chapters discuss his view of Christian morality and the famous ‘wager’ argument for opting in favour of Christian belief.

From Toleration to Liberty

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Kselman
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Political Theory ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Religious Liberty ◽  
Religious Communities ◽  
The Political ◽  
History Of ◽  
Increased Sensitivity ◽  
The Right ◽  
Broad Overview

This chapter offers a broad overview of the history of religious liberty in France from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century. Early in this period philosophers such as Montaigne, Bayle, Voltaire, Rousseau, and Constant moved from an understanding of religious liberty as a collective right designed to protect minority religious communities to an increased sensitivity to the right of individuals to make personal religious choices. The chapter situates Article Ten of the Declaration of the Rights of Man (1789), which established religious liberty as a fundamental right, within this historical context. It concludes with an examination of the political theory and constitutional structures of Restoration France that created the space for individuals to realize the right announced in Article Ten.

scholarly journals Antropologijska strujanja u novijoj teologijskoj misli

2018 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nikola Skledar
Keyword(s):  
Human Nature ◽  
Subject Matter ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Christian Theology ◽  
Religious Thought ◽  
Divine Grace ◽  
Philosophical Dialogue ◽  
Contemporary Christian ◽  
Divine Illumination ◽  
Theological Thought

Apart from the traditional, orthodox comprehension concerning revaled, suprarational religious truth and supernatural, divine religion origin according to which faith is a gift of heaven and of divine grace mediated by divine illumination through God’s sign, anthropological comprehensions appear recently in theological thought concerning the origin of religion (e. g. bishop and theologian J. A. T. Robinson (; according to these comprehensions religion is a product of mankind originating in human nature, from its need to transcend into infinity. This is in fact foundation of theology in anthropology, of theism in humanism. Ideational presence of some contemporary philosophical trends is obvious in contemporary Christian theology, and especially the presence of phenomenology and existentialism interceded with influence of M. Heidegger’s thought. Moreover Marxism is treated by recent theology in a new, more open and more realistic way. Since mentioned theological trends move necessarily towards philosophy (man and his salvation become subject-matter of religious thought), it is easier then to actualize a philosophical dialogue with them, even from a Marxist point of view, too. New tendencies appear especially between the wars due to liberal and dialectical protestant theology, but this article exposes K. Rahner, possibly the most important among respected contemporary catholic theologians, who are also concerned with these new tendencies,

Kropotkin

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruth Kinna
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
Human Nature ◽  
Political Change ◽  
Direct Action ◽  
The State ◽  
Social Analysis ◽  
Mutual Aid ◽  
Special Character ◽  
Revolutionary Politics

This book is designed to remove Peter Kropotkin from the framework of classical anarchism. By focusing attention on his theory of mutual aid, it argues that the classical framing distorts Kropotkin's political theory by associating it with a narrowly positivistic conception of science, a naively optimistic idea of human nature and a millenarian idea of revolution. Kropotkin's abiding concern with Russian revolutionary politics is the lens for this analysis. The argument is that his engagement with nihilism shaped his conception of science and that his expeditions in Siberia underpinned an approach to social analysis that was rooted in geography. Looking at Kropotkin's relationship with Elisée Reclus and Erico Malatesta and examining his critical appreciation of P-J. Proudhon, Michael Bakunin and Max Stirner, the study shows how he understood anarchist traditions and reveals the special character of his anarchist communism. His idea of the state as a colonising process and his contention that exploitation and oppression operate in global contexts is a key feature of this. Kropotkin's views about the role of theory in revolutionary practice show how he developed this critique of the state and capitalism to advance an idea of political change that combined the building of non-state alternatives through direct action and wilful disobedience. Against critics who argue that Kropotkin betrayed these principles in 1914, the book suggests that this controversial decision was consistent with his anarchism and that it reflected his judgment about the prospects of anarchistic revolution in Russia.

FBI and Religion

2017 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Religious Orientation ◽  
Religious Communities ◽  
Academic Scholarship ◽  
History Of ◽  
Interdisciplinary Assessment ◽  
Civic Religion ◽  
New Research ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Way

This volume is an interdisciplinary assessment of the relationship between religion and the FBI. We recount the history of the FBI’s engagement with multiple religious communities and with aspects of public or “civic” religion such as morality and respectability. The book presents new research to explain roughly the history of the FBI’s interaction with religion over approximately one century, from the pre-Hoover period to the post-9/11 era. Along the way, the book explores vexed issues that go beyond the particulars of the FBI’s history—the juxtaposition of “religion” and “cult,” the ways in which race can shape the public’s perceptions of religion (and vica versa), the challenges of mediating between a religious orientation and a secular one, and the role and limits of academic scholarship as a way of addressing the differing worldviews of the FBI and some of the religious communities it encounters.

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