Original Sin and Purpose of Being

I have been contemplating the doctrine of Original Sin, together with an ensuing sense of shame and justification of effort which has been put forward as a requirement for an attainment of experience of perfection, God's grace and knowledge of ultimate truth/reality. One of the consequences of a doctrine or fundamental belief of an imperfection of humanity is that it has created the necessity of a process of atonement, purification or attainment of virtue and which has managed to imprint itself into many areas of human thought and behaviour.

I have also been reading some of the work referred to as the Confessions of Augustine of Hippo (also known as Saint Augustine), who was born in 354 AD and became an early Christian theologian and philosopher. Augustine had originally been a Manichean and over a period of about 9 years, had contemplated the Manichean doctrines and philosophy until such time as he became disenchanted with their teachings and he chose to turn away from them after his meeting and impression of Faustus, one of their bishops. Contention as to the identity and role of the creator in bringing about redemption from sin, suffering and also the recognition of wisdom had been one of the motivating factors that St Augustine gave in his Confessions as forming the basis of his dissatisfaction and eventual departure from Manichaeism.

Augustine had been an ardent truth seeker in that he wished to elevate orthodox Catholic belief from what had appeared to him as being not only weak philosophy but heresy. It seems that Faustus had been found guilty of a pretension to understand good and evil. The philosophy of Manichaeism had hinged upon a dualism, in which it regarded all of creation as being divided between powers of light and darkness.

In Augustine’s eyes, this was tantamount to a rejection of monotheism; it seemed to suggest a lack of perfection as Augustine had argued that if God was limited in so far as his kingdom bordered on darkness, then how could it be perfect? How could God be incorporeal and pure whilst also having a common border with a corporeal being and the profane? And of course, there remains the question of whether humanity is essentially evil and corrupt or whether it can be redeemed, and not least of which by whom.

The Reformation movement endeavoured to try and resolve such fundamental issues by putting forward that the grace of God is all inclusive and always present in the world and that it far surpasses human understanding. A suggestion being that humanity doesn’t have to know the mechanism of how it is possible for good to triumph or essentially, of how it is that human nature can be redeemed in an imperfect world, other than to simply have faith that in living a virtuous life, it is possible. The dichotomy shifted from being not so much one of good and evil, but of reason and faith.

Piety has long been one of the virtues to be enthusiastically encouraged by religions and spiritual denominations. From a presumption of being unworthy as a creation and as a means to convey reverence of the sacred and practice of devoted worship, humility has been employed by the devout as a tool or ritual; its aim being to negate the materialistic concerns of the body and to train the mind and will to focus upon the supremacy of the spiritual endeavour.

One of the challenges to have arisen through encouragement of and pursuit of such virtues and other demonstrations of worthiness has been that of members of a congregation or community being able to discern whether such measures are authentic and meaningful or whether they are being employed for appearance sake only.

Jan Hus was a Czech priest and philosopher of the 14th century, who set out to denounce what he pointed out as the moral failings of the clergy and bishops of the Catholic Church. In 16th century Europe, the Protestant Reformation further attempted to reform the Catholic Church by criticizing the selling of indulgences and pointing out that the Pope had no authority over purgatory.

It appears as if the nature of thought is such that humanity has always been drawn into a web of exploring the purpose and meaning of life and thought itself, with a consequence that numerous philosophies of what constitutes reality and truth have been inspired and put into practice (some more forcefully than others).

If contemplation of an experience of being human and of what constitutes the human will is such that an assumption is made that the very nature of the material world (in particular of the human body) is essentially evil or corrupt, then it immediately allows for tension and of being in conflict with nature or else there could be no hope of an emergence of morality and redemption. The axis of such a philosophy revolves around the nature of the human impulse to fulfill one's greatest potential and/or to become perfect or deserving of grace in the eyes of a creator.

As part of any process of becoming or recognition of progress is an acquisition of and contemplation of information, knowledge and understanding, action and wisdom. An ongoing evaluation of and adherence of any values or recognition of personal truth that an individual is able to decipher or to discern from their experience will constitute their sense of morality and their virtue.

It is the means by which an individual is able to receive information, convert it into knowledge and/or recognition of truth and to put it into practice as wisdom, which is at the heart of any conflict existing between reason and faith. Is illumination brought about through the grace of a creator or is it dependent upon intellect, the labour of reason and personal mastery of the human will? Perhaps it is both, as the Reformation movement put forward? The nature of such thought is often at the basis of any individual wishing to set out on a pilgrimage or other philosophical pursuit of truth and it has invited many willing and not so willing adherents of its path.

In the earlier post ‘punishment for being bad’, I mentioned how Daniel Goleman has said that feelings of shame emerge in the second year of life – that as an infant realises that he or she is a separate person, pride and shame appear – pride at pleasing others and shame at displeasing them. Also, of how it has been observed that a sense of shame is what appears to be at the basis of driving some people towards building an inflated self-image through their pursuit of various activities – they hope to convince themselves of their own worth and lovability through their accomplishments.

There is clearly a correlation between pride and shame and whilst this may allow for some light of understanding as to why it is that some people are driven to excel, as well as of being unable to commit to various endeavours, in recognition of not providing nourishment for what is really ailing, it also opens doorways of understanding as to the nature of forgiveness and correlation of despair.

Take a situation whereby an individual has taken on board a perception of shame through their being given an impression that they are essentially bad or evil. The nature of hope is such that an individual will both yearn for redemption from their suffering and their voice of shame or their critic - which is also a voice of pride - will struggle to believe that such a state as themselves can be redeemable in the eyes of a creator - even more so if there is any doubt as to whether a creator has access to a world of corporeal and sin.

In a secular world, there is a parallel of this tension being played out in the eyes of a child who has been shamed by a parent or guardian and is striving to redeem themselves in the eyes of their loved one. In both cases, of whether an individual is striving for perfection in the eyes of a creator or that of a parent, the conflict is of whether the power of love is such that it can transform evil or wrongdoing in the world and this needs to be demonstrated rather than to be taken on faith.