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MODULE 2: THE HUMAN PERSON

MODULE 2: OPENING PRAYER

INSTRUCTION: IF YOU ARE READY, YOU CAN NOW START WITH MODULE 2.

Opening Prayer: As we start with this lesson, I invite you

to pray the Official Prayer before class.

Leader: When we live in unity,

All: How good and how pleasant it is.
Leader: Pray for us, Holy Father Augustine,
All: That we may dwell together in peace.
Leader: Let us pray,
All: God our Father, Your Son promised to be
present in the midst of all who come together in
His name. Help us to recognize His presence
among us and experience in our hearts the
abundance of Your grace, Your mercy, and
Your peace, in truth and in love. We ask this,
through Christ our Lord. Amen.

2022-2023 Module Packet for ASF 3 (ST. AUGUSTINE ON ETHICS). Center for Religious SR. JEAN ALCAIN, LMSH 07/27/2022
Studies, University of San Agustin, Iloilo City, Philippines. DR. REYNOLD B. NAVARES

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A GRACE-FILLED DAY! WELCOME TO MODULE 2.

Welcome to Module 2, The Human Person. This module focuses on the

teachings of St. Augustine regarding the human persons and their
quest for happiness. It considers human persons as created beings
and fallen yet redeemed by Christ. Some anthropological
presuppositions about the human persons are also included in the
discussion.

Consultation hours:
Phone/messenger:
Virtual time:

MODULE 2: LEARNING OBJECTIVES

By the end of Module 2, students will be able to:

1. manifest understanding on the dignity of the human person;

2. demonstrate ways to show respect and love for oneself and
others;
3. show appreciation to God for the gift of oneself.

2022-2023 Module Packet for ASF 3 (ST. AUGUSTINE ON ETHICS). Center for Religious SR. JEAN ALCAIN, LMSH 07/27/2022
Studies, University of San Agustin, Iloilo City, Philippines. DR. REYNOLD B. NAVARES

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MODULE 2: COURSE CONTENTS

Below is the Schedule for Module 2.

TIME TO
ACTIVITY DESCRIPTION OVERVIEW
COMPLETE
Opening Prayer 3 minutes

Learning Objectives 2 minutes

1 Dyad Sharing 5 minutes

Topic 1: Humanity’s Quest for
2A 20 minutes
Happiness
Topic 2: The Nature of the Human
2B 20 minutes
Person
Topic 3: Some Anthropological
2C Presuppositions about Human 20 minutes
Person
Assessment Task 1: Poem
15 minutes
Composition
Assessment Task 2: Quiz 15 minutes

Conclusion 5 minutes

Closing Prayer 2 minutes

References

2022-2023 Module Packet for ASF 3 (ST. AUGUSTINE ON ETHICS). Center for Religious SR. JEAN ALCAIN, LMSH 07/27/2022
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MODULE 2. Activity 1 – DYAD SHARING

Kindly follow the instructions below.

Instruction: Find a partner, share and answer the questions below. Post
the summary of your sharing in the NEO-LMS. Asynchronous period.

Score: 10 points.

1. How would you define happiness?

2. What led you to develop such an idea of happiness?
3. What are the objects of your desire, which you think can make
you happy?
4. What role does your desire for happiness occupy in your daily
life?

SHORT DEEPENING LEADING TO THE LECTURE/DISCUSSION PROPER:

(The teacher can choose any of these options to do lecture/

discussion such as ppt/pdf presentation, pre-recorded lecture,
summary-overview processing, NEO-LMS tools, interactive apps such
as slido, poll everywhere, gamification, etc.).

2022-2023 Module Packet for ASF 3 (ST. AUGUSTINE ON ETHICS). Center for Religious SR. JEAN ALCAIN, LMSH 07/27/2022
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MODULE 2: Activity 2A – HUMANITY’S QUEST FOR HAPPINESS (Alvarez &

Cabahug, 2021)

Please read the script below.

1. AUGUSTINE’S PERSONAL QUEST FOR HAPPINESS

Augustine describes happiness as consisting in man’s

participation in God or “becoming like God.” This idea clearly comes
from Plato, whom Augustine paraphrases as saying that “the wise
man is the man who imitates, knows and loves this God, and that
participation in this God brings man happiness” (The City of God 8.5).
The Philosopher identifies God with the summum bonum, the
attainment of which “leaves us nothing more to seek for our
happiness. For this reason, it is called the ’end’; everything else we
desire for the sake of this, this we desire for itself alone” (The City of
God 8.8).

Augustine’s way of thinking was “eudemonistic” (Gilson, 1960).

Not only his way of thinking but Augustine’s entire life was a constant
search for happiness. Augustinian ethics should be understood within
the context of Augustine’s search for happiness. Maurer says, “All the
resources of his mind and heart are concentrated on this enterprise”
(Maurer, 1982). A quick review of the African thinker’s life suffices to
demonstrate how the search for happiness accompanied
Augustine’s childhood to the very end. This eudemonistic quest
undertook various forms along the course of Augustine’s life and can
be seen in the different objects with which Augustine associated.

In the beginning, Augustine thought that happiness is being

surrounded by friends who sometimes led Augustine along the wrong
2022-2023 Module Packet for ASF 3 (ST. AUGUSTINE ON ETHICS). Center for Religious SR. JEAN ALCAIN, LMSH 07/27/2022
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path. There was also a time when Augustine thought that happiness
consisted in satisfying the sensual desires which led Augustine to get
involved with an unnamed woman who later became the mother of
Augustine’s son Adeodatus.

During their college days and initial professional careers aspired

to be rich and famous which Augustine thought could find happiness.
Augustine’s quest for happiness took on a more philosophical twist
than what happened upon reading Cicero’s Hontensius. Augustine’s
eudemonistic search was tied up with fleeting objects of the present
life which are: 1) purely human friendship, 2) sexual gratification, 3)
material wealth, and 4) fame, inscribed in Augustine’s
autobiographical work the Confessions as “human vanity” (Conf.
3.4.7). Augustine in early thirties realized that true and lasting
happiness consisted in the possession of God for it presupposed
attachment to things that last and is not subject to change.

2. UNIVERSALITY OF MAN’S DESIRE FOR HAPPINESS

Augustine believed that the desire for happiness is universal. In

one of Augustine’s sermons: “All men love happiness… Whether they
lead a good life or a bad one, they want to be happy; but not all
attain to what all desire. All wish to be happy; none will be so but those
who wish to be good” (Sermon 3.15 on Ps 32).

In Augustine’s writings, one sees Augustine’s understanding of

happiness changed along the course of time. First, Augustine thought
that it was enough for man to possess whatever one wanted in order
to be happy: “Happy is he who has what he wants” (On Happy Life
10). Augustine, later on, realized that it was not enough to have
anything one desired in order to be happy. The object of one’s desire
must also be intrinsically good or good in itself: “No one is happy unless
he has all that he wants and wants nothing that is evil” (On the Trinity

2022-2023 Module Packet for ASF 3 (ST. AUGUSTINE ON ETHICS). Center for Religious SR. JEAN ALCAIN, LMSH 07/27/2022
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13.5.8). Augustine did not stop there. Augustine came to a deeper

understanding of happiness when Augustine wrote that “happy is he
who enjoys the highest good” (On Free Will 2.13.36). Augustine added
that: “Happiness consists in the enjoyment of a good other than which
there is nothing better, which we call the chief good” (On the Lifestyle
of the Catholic Church 3). Augustine’s conversion in 386 started to
identify that unless one possessed that sole and highest good not
subject to change – God, true happiness is not attained.

3. NATURE OF HAPPINESS

The present world may give us momentary glimpses of true

happiness, but the perfect kind of happiness can never be reached
in this world because “even though men are satisfied with what man
has at the present moment, the prospect of death causes fear that all
the goods man possess here and now will eventually be lost (On
Happy Life 2.11; cf. Burt, 1999). Augustine asserts that “there will be no
happy life if there is no immortality” (On the Trinity 13.7.10). Humans
can only achieve this kind of immortality when they participate in the
life of God. Augustine expressed to Evodius: “your happiness will come
about you, not my will, but by the necessity of God’s action” (On Free
Will 3.3.26).

4. SOME PHILOSOPHICAL INFLUENCES

The influence of ancient philosophy on Augustine’s idea of

happiness is quite easy to discern (cf. Schlabach, 1999). Ancient
Greek thinkers in particular thought of happiness as consisting in the
possession of some good spirit – an “eu-daimon” (hence we have the
term “eudemonism” as referring to a man’s quest for happiness). The
2022-2023 Module Packet for ASF 3 (ST. AUGUSTINE ON ETHICS). Center for Religious SR. JEAN ALCAIN, LMSH 07/27/2022
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term “daimon” specifically refers to a “god in the individual guarding

the soul’s destiny” (Braun, 1999). The Greeks believed that allowing
oneself to be ruled by such spirit and trying to please it was the key to
happiness and success in life.

Some philosophers also conceived happiness as consisting of

living a rational life or a life governed by reason. For Plato, the reason
was man’s highest faculty, and one should use it to control man’s
lower appetites (desires of the “lower soul” and of the body). Aristotle,
on the other hand, thought that happiness consisted in the
observance of the so-called “golden mean” – in avoiding extremes
and cultivating virtues. The Stoics proposed the ideal of “apatheia”
(often loosely translated as “indifference” to what they considered
“passions”).

Against this backdrop of lofty ideas concerning happiness, one

also finds some ancient thinkers who proposed a rather base notion
of it. Epicureans taught people that happiness consisted in a life of
pleasure. The Cynics also believed that happiness consisted in living a
life dictated by nature and satisfying the “calls of nature” anywhere
and at all times.

Augustine was certainly familiar with and was influenced by the

different notions of happiness espoused by ancient Greek and Roman
philosophers. Augustine assumed a very critical attitude towards them
after conversion to the Christian faith. Augustine criticized all pagan
philosophers for giving a false account of happiness (Kent, 2001).

The teachings of the Sacred Scripture and of the Catholic

Church at that time became Augustine’s constant point of reference.
Augustine accepted classical philosophical ideas that were not in
contradiction with the Catholic teachings and rejected those that

2022-2023 Module Packet for ASF 3 (ST. AUGUSTINE ON ETHICS). Center for Religious SR. JEAN ALCAIN, LMSH 07/27/2022
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were against it. Among the various philosophies that were available-
Augustine considered Platonism as closest the Christian truth. It
liberated Augustine from the materialism of the Manicheans and the
skepticism of the Academics. Augustine wrote: “Plato was the one
who shone with a glory which far excelled that of the others and who
not unjustly eclipsed them all” (The City of God 8.4). In the book
Against the Academics 3.20.43 Augustine asserted: “I am confident
that I shall find among the Platonists what is not in opposition to our
Sacred Scriptures,” On the other hand in The City of God 8.4 is
inscribed: “There are none who come nearer to us than the Platonists”
and in 8.9 Augustine considered the Platonic teachings as “the closest
approximation to our Christian position.” In On True Religion 7
Augustine said: “If those men (sc. the Platonists) could have had this
life ever again with us … they would have become Christians, with the
change of a few words and statements.”

MODULE 2: Activity 2B – THE NATURE OF HUMAN PERSON

Please read the script below.

Who am I? Why am I here on the earth? Why do I have to die?

Where does life come from? Is there an ultimate purpose that gives
meaning to my life and even to my suffering? These questions help us
to ponder and reflect on the human person. This topic would help us
explore the Augustinian perspective of being a human person.

The ancient and medieval mindsets presume that ethical life

should be based on human nature or must serve as the proper
expression of what humanity is or ought to be. Augustine imbibed the

2022-2023 Module Packet for ASF 3 (ST. AUGUSTINE ON ETHICS). Center for Religious SR. JEAN ALCAIN, LMSH 07/27/2022
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basic Christian notions of humanity as a creature that was (1) created,

(2) that has fallen, (3) and was redeemed by Christ (Cabahug, 2021).

1. HUMAN PERSON, AS A CREATED BEING

The self is the evident materiality of man. Nature which man

shares with other creatures in the physical world is described by
Christian doctrines that humans are created in God’s image and
likeness (Gen.1:26) and is endowed with rational nature and
eternally destined. St. Augustine perceived man formerly as “a
rational soul using a body” and later, a rational substance
consisting of soul and body (Trinity 15.7.11). Augustine says that
“anyone who wished to separate the body from human nature is
foolish” (On the Soul & its Origin, IV.2.3).

The juxtaposition of the rational soul and the material body in

a human person places him/her in the order of things where he/she
realizes that there are degrees or hierarchies of existence where
some things are greater or lesser than the other. Man finds the self
in the middle of the spiritual and the material realm where the
former is greater than the latter. Human persons are implanted by
its Creator with the desire for a better degree of existence than
what he/she has now. This desire for a higher existence can only be
fulfilled in man’s mutual union with his/her Creator. Augustine
popularly exclaimed “you have made us and drawn us to Yourself,
and our heart is restless until it rests in You (Conf.1.1).

2022-2023 Module Packet for ASF 3 (ST. AUGUSTINE ON ETHICS). Center for Religious SR. JEAN ALCAIN, LMSH 07/27/2022
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2. THE FALLEN HUMANITY YET REDEEMED BY CHRIST

Endowed with a rational nature man is gifted by God with free will. As
man finds himself/herself amidst thing that are greater or lower than
him/herself in value, he/she is given the free will to choose where
he/she should direct his/her motivations and actions. The history of
salvation narrated that humanity in their first parents misused their free
choice of the will placing every human person under the state of sin
and enduring its consequent effects. Man’s sin calls for
condemnation, St. Augustine describes such event as a “Happy Fault”
(Felix Culpa) because it gives God more reason to incarnate the
Logos and to redeem man in the most loving way. Looking at this
allow one to explore the teachings of St. Augustine on the problem of
evil and the role of Jesus Christ to humanity.

IMPORTANCE OF THE QUESTION TO ETHICS

Happiness ultimately consists in the possession of the “highest

good” or of God himself. Augustine could not avoid discussing the
problem of evil which is one of the main hindrances to man’s quest for
true lasting happiness. The problem of evil “embrace[s] almost every
area of Augustine’s writing and perceived more and more of the
ramifications of the subject” (Evans, 1999). S. Kaye and P. Thomson
also share this view when they assert that the problem of evil disturbs
and creates a great impact on the life and mind of Augustine,
especially on how to reconcile its realities with the existence of a good
God that ignited Augustine’s philosophical and critical inquiries (Kaye-
Thomson, 2002). The subject of ethics under this lens will proceed in
the direction of elaborating on what evil is and how it may be
addressed in accordance with the writings of Augustine.

2022-2023 Module Packet for ASF 3 (ST. AUGUSTINE ON ETHICS). Center for Religious SR. JEAN ALCAIN, LMSH 07/27/2022
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Augustine prior to conversion in 386 seemed to know only two

types of evil – physical evil and moral evil. W. Mann explains:
“Augustine was aware of the existence of evil in the world- evil that
can be divided into two major classes. First, physical objects have
limitations and defects. The limitations of living things result in hardship,
pain, illness, and death. Secondly, there are people who behave
wickedly and whose souls are characterized by such vices as pride,
envy, greed, and lust” (Mann, 2001).

Augustine after conversion understood that there was also such

a thing as “original sin,” which was the very first evil act committed by
humanity. Augustine also came to understand that evil was
fundamentally an act of turning away from God, caused by pride
(superbia) – “the love of one’s own excellence” (On the Literal
Interpretation of Genesis 11.14.18) and a “desire for perverse
elevation” (The City of God 14.13). Adam and Eve’s “original sin”
according to Augustine was not only a historical event, but also a
condition (cf. On the Merits and Remission of Sins 1.9.9-1.12.15). It was
the result of their free choice to reject their dependence on God and
to opt for their own private good (Hunter, 2015).

AUGUSTINE’S PERSONAL EXPERIENCES

Augustine’s “The Confessions” gives us a glimpse into how in

touch Augustine was with past memories and how its details came to
influence the way Augustine spoke, thought, and behaved. It also
revealed in detail show Augustine personally experienced evil even in
small ways. Without the tools and theories of modern psychology, one
can already find a rich source in the Confessions on how long
forgotten latent memories that are already long buried or submerged
under the iceberg, as Sigmund Freud would describe it could still
affect the personality of a human person. One important observation

2022-2023 Module Packet for ASF 3 (ST. AUGUSTINE ON ETHICS). Center for Religious SR. JEAN ALCAIN, LMSH 07/27/2022
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that can be found in Confessions is its author’s meditations on how it

dealt with what is considered evil even during its younger years.

Augustine asserted that original sin was already present in a

person even during the period of infancy, which popular mentality
sees as a stage of sinlessness and innocence. The Confessions informs
us how- even in infancy, Augustine remembered trying to manipulate
some adults by crying unreasonably in order to get what they wanted
(cf. Conf. 1.8) and how Augustine reacted when seeing other babies
display some sense of greediness and jealousy when their mothers or
nursing guardians shared the milk of their breasts with other babies (cf.
Conf. 1.11). These were simple manifestations of evil or sin present in
man even in babies.

The presence of sin in man continues to manifest itself as a

person grows. Looking back as a young student, Augustine
remembered having a lack of discipline at school which often led
teachers to punish corporally (cf. Conf. 1.9.14; 1.14.23). Augustine also
considered the act of disobeying parents and teachers as
tantamount to the act of sinning (cf. Conf. 1.10.16).

Things got worse as an adolescent. Sexual instincts were

gradually awakened and enjoyed tickling the ears with “tall stories
that only made them itch more hotly” and hankered to satisfy the
curiosity that “inflamed Augustine’s eyes with lust for public shows
which are the games of grown-up” (Conf.1.10.16). Augustine’s friends
were accomplices sin committing such acts just like when they
convinced Augustine to steal some pears from a neighbor’s orchard
just for the fun of doing it: (Conf. 2.9).

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Manichean Concept of Evil

Augustine began a serious reflection on the problem of evil

during the time of associating with the Manicheans in Carthage.
Equipped with a more sophisticated-philosophical way of thinking
started to ask on the origin of evil and why it existed in the world.
Augustine also began to look at evil not so much from a purely moral
point of view but from a more philosophical perspective by asking,
Unde malum? (“Where does evil come from?”). It was the
fundamental problem the Manicheans grappled with (cf. On the
Lifestyle of the Manicheans 3.5;2.2).

The Manicheans espoused a materialistic and dualistic theory

teaching that evil was an eternal substance that coexisted with the
principle of goodness. Manicheism claimed the existence of two
coeternal principles – those of light (goodness) and of darkness (evil)
(cf. On the Lifestyle of the Manicheans 3.5; 12.27; Against the Letter of
Manichaeus called Fundamental 12.15- 13.16; 15.19; 19.21-22.23;
28.31; Against Faustus 21.1; for a brief presentation of Manichean
cosmogony, cf. Coyle, 2007; Scott, 1995; Lee, 1997).

These two were seen as in a constant state of tension and battle

(Mann, 2001). The Manicheans’ explained why evil existed in the world
is but the result of a primordial battle between the principles of light
and darkness and that man was in no way accountable or
responsible for it. Evil existed and nature itself is to be blamed not man.
The ultimate obsession of the Manicheans was the liberation of the
elements of light supposedly trapped in man’s material body (cf.
Babcock, 1994). The possession of a special kind of knowledge
(gnosis), was necessary. (Against the Letter of Manichaeus called
Fundamental 14.17). The members of the sect claimed that Mani was
doing their best to fight evil, but Mani finds facing an independent
opponent as formidable as Himself (cf. Mann, 2001).
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The Manichean theory appealed to the young Augustine and

their explanation about evil. Many questions remained unanswered
and when Augustine tried to clarify them with a Manichean sect
luminary named Faustus, everything ended in great disappointment.
Augustine described the man as learned and eloquent but deprived
of substance (cf. Conf. 5.6.11; 5.3.3).

A fall-out started between Augustine and the members of the

sect. Augustine departure from Carthage and transfer to Rome in the
year 383 was in part motivated by Augustine’s desire to break away
from the group-belonging to the group referred to as the “auditor”
(“hearer”) for nine years.

Evil as Privation

Augustine encountered Ambrose in Milan being a migrant in

Rome in 386. The city bishop inspired Augustine to return in reading the
Platonists (cf. Conf. 7.9.13). Scholars say that Augustine probably read
the writings of Plotinus, Porphyry, Iamblichus, Apuleius, and other
Platonic philosophers. J. P. Kenney even thinks that “Plotinus was the
only great philosopher that Augustine studied in any depth” (Kenney,
2002). Platonism did not only allow Augustine to overcome the crisis
stirred by the Academics in Rome, specifically as regards the
attainability of the truth but also freed Augustine’s mind from
Manichean materialism convincing them to seek the truth beyond
corporeal forms (cf. Conf. 7.20.26). Augustine was provided with a
different understanding of the nature of evil. The Manicheans taught
that evil was a substance, Platonism convinced Augustine that it was
but a “privation.”

“Privation” (privatio) is a technical philosophical term that

indicates not a simple lack or defect but the absence of something
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that is expected to be present (cf. Conf. 3.7.12). It is the absence of

the good in a “substance” (substantia) (cf. Schäfer, 2000) or it is
something that exists in itself which is supposed to be ontologically
“good”. It is in a state of actuality and not sheer potentiality and
possesses measure (mensura), form (forma, species), and order (ordo)
(cf. On the Nature of the Good 3; On Free Will 2.20.54; Against
Secundinus, the Manichean 17; Williams, 1999; Mann, 2001; Schäfer,
2000). Evil is not a “substance” but a mere “privation,” evil cannot exist
in itself (cf. Schäfer, 2000), but needs some “substance,” as it were, to
dwell in (cf. On the Lifestyle of the Catholic Church 2.5.7;
Brachtendorf, 2000; Cress, 2010).

Everything that exists per se is ontologically “good” (cf. cf. Conf.

7.12.18; On Free Will 3.13). Without excluding some possible influence
of Platonism, Augustine must have interpreted this in the light of the
Christian teaching about the goodness of creation (cf. Brachtendorf,
2000; Burt, 1999). Everything created by God is supposed to be good,
and yet the African bishop could not deny the fact that evil exists in
some way. It must be only a “privation” attributable not to the
Creator, but to the intrinsic limitation of creatures (cf. Springsted,
1998). God alone is infinitely good and has no evil in Himself. But the
creatures were created with limitations, and this leaves space for evil,
which in turn can manifest itself in many ways in the world including in
the field of ethics.

2022-2023 Module Packet for ASF 3 (ST. AUGUSTINE ON ETHICS). Center for Religious SR. JEAN ALCAIN, LMSH 07/27/2022
Studies, University of San Agustin, Iloilo City, Philippines. DR. REYNOLD B. NAVARES

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MODULE 2: Activity 2C – SOME ANTHROPOLOGICAL PRESUPPOSITIONS

ABOUT MAN (Alvarez & Cabahug, 2021)

Please read the script below.

1. HYLEMORPHIC THEORY ABOUT THE HUMAN PERSON

Every ethical theory presupposes certain anthropology or vision

of man. Augustine also had his own idea of man. The way Augustine
looked at man ranged from a purely philosophical one to a very
religious one, or oftentimes the combination of the two. The influence
of ancient philosophies and Augustine’s newly embraced Christian
faith is not hard to discern. First and foremost, Augustine espoused a
hylemorphic idea of man, that man is composed of both body
(“matter” or hyle in Greek) and soul (“form” or morphe in Greek) (cf.
The City of God 5.11; 19.3). Some scholars even speak of a three-fold
composition of man, further dividing his non- bodily part into soul and
spirit (mind). Thus, man would be composed of a body, a soul, and a
spirit (mind) (cf. On the Gospel of John 26.2). But, as P. Burnell would
say, this is “a mere ecclesiastical relic in Augustine’s thought” (Burnell,
2005). “Augustine’s fundamental division of the created order is into
the spiritual and the corporeal, metaphysically, therefore, Augustine
is without question a dualist” (ibid.).

The relationship between the body and soul is compared to that

of a “sweet marriage” (dulce consortium) (cf. Letter 140). Just as
married man and woman take care of each other, so must the soul
take care of the body (cf. Hunter, 2015). This immediately sets him
apart from other thinkers who had a negative view of the human
body, considering it, for example, as evil in itself and as something to
be mortified and punished. The Manicheans held such a view. Others
asserted that the true man is only the soul which must be liberated

2022-2023 Module Packet for ASF 3 (ST. AUGUSTINE ON ETHICS). Center for Religious SR. JEAN ALCAIN, LMSH 07/27/2022
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from its state of imprisonment in the human body. This is typical of the
Neoplatonists.

2. THE HUMAN BODY AND ITS SENSES

Man’s possessing a body endowed with five senses – those of

sight, hearing, taste, smell, and touch – is the very first observable
characteristic of man in the world. Through such senses man gets into
contact with the material reality surrounding him – man can see, hear,
smell, touch and even taste it. It is also through the senses that man
gains knowledge of the outside world. Augustinian epistemology or
theory of knowledge explains the complex process by which material
things in the world are perceived by the senses and how
corresponding images of them are formed in the human mind
(specifically in memory). From there, a higher level of abstraction
takes place, making it possible for man to understand the nature of
things and to judge them (cf. On the Trinity 9.6.9; 9.6.11; 9.11.16).

Augustine speaks of three levels of knowledge or “vision” –

namely, “corporeal,” “spiritual,” and “intellectual” (cf. On the Literal
Interpretation of Genesis 12.6.15; 12.7.16; 12.11.22). The first level
requires the actual presence to the bodily senses of a perceptible
object; the second level relies on the corresponding images,
impressions, or likenesses that such an object has produced in the
memory – hence, the object of perception need not be present to
the bodily senses; and the third level concerns abstract realities,
meaning, judgment, etc. where true understanding takes place.

Man is not just a material body; man, also possesses a soul

capable of thinking, reasoning out and willing (cf. The City of God
5.11). It is such rational capacity that makes man a “likeness of God”
(The City of God 13.24). Sometimes under the influence of Plato, the
Bishop of Hippo would consider the soul as “the better part of man”
2022-2023 Module Packet for ASF 3 (ST. AUGUSTINE ON ETHICS). Center for Religious SR. JEAN ALCAIN, LMSH 07/27/2022
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and the body as man’s “lower part” (The City of God 13.24). He says:
“in the order of nature, the soul is unquestionably ranked above the
body” (The City of God 14.23; 19.3). The soul is also called “the inner
man” while the body is “the outer man” (The City of God 13.24).
Aristotle made a distinction among the three degrees or types of soul
responsible for life, sensibility and mind respectively (The City of God
7.23;7.29).

3. THE HUMAN SOUL AND ITS FACULTIES

The human soul has certain faculties or powers. Augustine

elaborates on three of such faculties – namely, reason (intellect), will
and memory (cf. The City of God 22.24; On the Trinity 10.11.17- 18:
Conf. 10; Burnell: 55ff.). In Augustine’s Confessions book 10, Augustine
presents a detailed discussion of human memory. It is compared to “a
huge repository with secret and unimaginable caverns” (Conf.
10.8.13) and to “a stomach chews the cud” (Conf. 10.14.22). It
provides man with materials which uses to ruminate, (like images,
imageless thoughts, emotions, etc.). It is memory that provides the
reason and the will the materials they need for their respective
functions. Man can remember. The will is attracted towards things
perceived as good or desirable or flees from things perceived as evil
and undesirable (cf. Medieval concept of “estimative sense”). With
the help of memory, human reason is provided with information it
needs to understand things, their nature, characteristics, etc., and is
made capable of acquiring knowledge and arriving at the truth. For
Augustine, man is essentially “a rational substance consisting of soul
and body” (cf. On The Trinity 15.7.11; also see Duffy, 1999).
Unlike the Platonists and the Manicheans, Augustine did not see
the human body as intrinsically evil (cf. On the Nature of the Good
18). Augustine asserted that “anyone who wishes to separate the
body from human nature is foolish” (On the Soul and its Origin 4.2.3).
Bodily desires are also not to be suppressed but rather regulated by
2022-2023 Module Packet for ASF 3 (ST. AUGUSTINE ON ETHICS). Center for Religious SR. JEAN ALCAIN, LMSH 07/27/2022
Studies, University of San Agustin, Iloilo City, Philippines. DR. REYNOLD B. NAVARES

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human reason. These ideas certainly have significant implications in

the field of ethics.

4. HUMANITY’S SPECIAL PLACE IN THE ORDER OF CREATION

Augustine sees man as having been created to God’s image

and likeness (Gen 1:26). The Alexandrians differentiate between
“image” and “likeness” saying that “image” refers to the sempiternal,
originally a pre-creational archetypal form of a human being in the
thought of God, while “likeness” refers to the degree of similarity
between a created human being and God (cf. Burnell, 2005).
Following the Alexandrian tradition, the African bishop distinguishes
between “image” and “likeness” saying that while all created things
bear certain likeness with the Creator (for example, by demonstrating
in varying degrees the divine attributes of goodness, beauty, order,
etc.: cf. O’Donnell, 1994), only man bears God’s image (imago Dei)
the “image of God’s image” or of Christ himself.

Augustine does not only possess rationality and the capacity to

love, but also tends naturally toward God whose image man bears.
“All such images strive to be that in whose likeness they are made”
(Against the Academics 3.17.39). The present world man experiences
restlessness, which will end only when man finally returns to the
Creator, or as the Confessions beautifully put it: “You have made us
for yourself, and our heart is restless until it rests in you” (Conf. 1.1). Man
is likewise destined to be raised back to life both body and soul at the
end of time.

Man’s being in possession of a body and a rational soul puts man

in a special place in the order of creation. Man finds himself in the
middle of the spiritual and the material realms (cf. Burnell, 2005).
Human persons are implanted by their Creator with the desire to strive
for a better degree of existence. Man is called to continuously
2022-2023 Module Packet for ASF 3 (ST. AUGUSTINE ON ETHICS). Center for Religious SR. JEAN ALCAIN, LMSH 07/27/2022
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improve themselves and to transform the world they live in their way
of participating in God’s continuous act of creation.

Augustine espousing a noble vision of man underscores man’s

fallen state. Original sin impaired man’s ability both to think and to will
(Mann, 2001). God endowed man with free will or the capacity to
choose and decide for himself/herself. Man, initially enjoyed true
freedom (libertas) in Paradise as man focused only on God and on
the execution of God’s will.

The man committed “original sin,” which resulted in

compromising man’s freedom (libertas), turning it into what is
commonly termed as “free will” (liberum arbitrium) (cf. Enchiridion: 32;
Holtzen, 2000). Free will is a divided will, not the intent, and focused
only on what is good (Kent, 2001). The man may also choose and will
what is evil. This is the kind of free will that man possesses in the present
life. Man must constantly decide and choose between good and evil.

The Holy Mother Church teaches at the Second Vatican Council

that someone “cannot fully find himself except through a sincere gift
of himself.”1 This is why we are called by our Lord to give. To repeat
the words of St. John Paul II, “It is Jesus that you seek when you dream
of happiness; He is waiting for you when nothing else you find satisfies
you; He is the beauty to which you are so attracted; it is He who
provoked you with that thirst for fullness that will not let you settle for
compromise; it is He who urges you to shed the masks of a false life; it
is He who reads in your heart your most genuine choices, the choices

1
Cf. Vatican Council II. (1965). Gaudium et Spes. # 24.
2022-2023 Module Packet for ASF 3 (ST. AUGUSTINE ON ETHICS). Center for Religious SR. JEAN ALCAIN, LMSH 07/27/2022
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that others try to stifle.”2 It is Jesus who is calling you to be holy because
it is with him you will find the most joy in this world and the next.

MODULE 2. ASSESSMENT TASK 1: POEM COMPOSITION “Who Am I”

Compose a poem about “Who am I” as a person and post in NEO-

LMS given the following rubrics:

Writing Process/Effort 4 pts.

Title 4 pts.
Neatness 4 pts.
Style 4 pts.
Vocabulary 4 pts.
Total Score 20 pts.

Needs
Excellent Good Satisfactory
CATEGORY Improvement
(4 points) (3 points) (2 points)
(1 point)
THE WRITING Student Student Student Student
PROCESS/ devoted a lot devoted devoted devoted little
EFFORT of time and adequate time some time time and
effort to the and effort to and effort effort to the
writing process the writing to the writing
and worked process and writing process. It
hard to make worked to get process but appears that
the poem a the job done. was not the student
good read. The poem may very does not care
thorough. about the

2
Cf. Pope John Paul II. (2000).Address Message to the World Youth Day.
2022-2023 Module Packet for ASF 3 (ST. AUGUSTINE ON ETHICS). Center for Religious SR. JEAN ALCAIN, LMSH 07/27/2022
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The poem has have one or Does assignment.

no errors. two errors. enough to The poem has
get by. many errors.
There are
several
errors.
TITLE The poem has The poem has a The poem The poem has
a title that title that relates has a title no title
clearly relates to the poem
to the poem
and adds
interest to the
theme or
message of the
poem
NEATNESS The final draft The final draft of The final The final draft
of the poem is the poem is draft of the is not neat or
readable, readable, neat poem is attractive. It
clean, neat and attractive. readable looks like the
and attractive. It may have and some student just
It is free of one or two of the wanted to get
erasures and erasures, but pages are it done and
crossed-out they are not attractive. It didn’t care
words. It looks distracting. It looks like what it looked
like the author looks like the parts of it like.
took great author took might have
pride in it. some pride in it. been done
in a hurry.
STYLE The poem is The poem is The poem is The poem
written with a written with a written lacks style,
great sense of defined with somewhat and the
style. The style. Thoughts with style. thoughts did
poem has been are clear to Thoughts not come out

2022-2023 Module Packet for ASF 3 (ST. AUGUSTINE ON ETHICS). Center for Religious SR. JEAN ALCAIN, LMSH 07/27/2022
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well thought read and are clear to clearly on

out and makes understandable a degree. paper.
sense to the .
reader.
VOCABULARY The poem is The poem The poem The poem
filled with includes many includes lacks
descriptive descriptive some description
vocabulary elements and is descriptive and does not
that appeals to appealing. words and allow the
the reader. phrases. reader to
visualize the
poem.

MODULE 2. ASSESSMENT TASK 2: QUIZ

(Teacher has to prepare the questions. Options to do such as using

gamification, quiz dashboard provided by NEO-LMS, etc.).

MODULE 2. CONCLUSION

The human person as a created being is the highest and most

loved creation of God. Evil comes as a privation of something that is
supposed to be present, thus the absence of goodness. Christ came
to reinstate human beings from their fallen state. The exploration of
the human body comes to have a deeper understanding of the
human person’s nature and further considers the understanding of the
human soul and its place in creation.

2022-2023 Module Packet for ASF 3 (ST. AUGUSTINE ON ETHICS). Center for Religious SR. JEAN ALCAIN, LMSH 07/27/2022
Studies, University of San Agustin, Iloilo City, Philippines. DR. REYNOLD B. NAVARES

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MODULE 2: CLOSING PRAYER

Closing Prayer: Please pray the Official Prayer after Class.

Leader: Our help is in the name of the Lord,

All: Who made heaven and earth.
Leader: Let us pray.
All: God, the desire of every human heart, you
moved Saint Augustine to seek restlessly for truth
and peace. Touch our hearts with his burning
desire for wisdom, for the Word made flesh. We
Leader: ask this through Christ, our Lord. Amen.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son, and to
All: the Holy Spirit.
As it was in the beginning, is now, and will be
forever. Amen.

MODULE 2. REFERENCES:

 Alvarez, Czar Emmanuel. “Augustine on Interreligious Dialogue.”

Quaerens. Vol. 14. No. 2 (December 2019): 95-116.
 Alvarez, Fr. Czar Emmanuel V., OSA and Cabahug, Fr. Reo G.,
OSA. (2021). Augustinian Ethics. ReSt 1: 72-117.
 Burnell, P. The Augustinian Person. The Catholic University of
America Press 2005.

2022-2023 Module Packet for ASF 3 (ST. AUGUSTINE ON ETHICS). Center for Religious SR. JEAN ALCAIN, LMSH 07/27/2022
Studies, University of San Agustin, Iloilo City, Philippines. DR. REYNOLD B. NAVARES

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 Cress, D. A. “Augustine’s Privation Account of Evil.” Augustinian

Studies 20 (1989): 109-128.
 Duffy, S. “Anthropology” in Augustine through the Ages. An
Encyclopedia. Ed. Allan Fitzgerald. William Eerdmans Publishing
1999: 24-31.
 Evans, G. R. “Evil” in Augustine through the Ages. An
Encyclopedia. Ed. Allan Fitzgerald. William Eerdmans Publishing
1999: 340-344.
 Hunter, D. “Augustine on the Body” in A Companion to
Augustine. Ed. Mark Vessey. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. 2015.
 Kenney, J. P. “Augustine’s Inner Self.” Augustinian Studies 33:1
(2002): 79-90.
 Mann, W. “Augustine on Evil and Original Sin” in The Cambridge
Companion to Augustine.
 Eds. Eleonore Stump and Norman Kretzmann. Cambridge
University Press 2001.
 The Jerusalem Bible. (2005). Philippines: Philippine Bible Society.

2022-2023 Module Packet for ASF 3 (ST. AUGUSTINE ON ETHICS). Center for Religious SR. JEAN ALCAIN, LMSH 07/27/2022
Studies, University of San Agustin, Iloilo City, Philippines. DR. REYNOLD B. NAVARES

Email: [email protected] | Tel. No.: 0999-997-1485 | Fax No.: (033) 337-4403