I’ve been reading Augustine’s “On Free Choice of the Will” almost all day today. And obviously because I’ve read about a third of one of his classic works, I am now an expert. So I would like to share my elite knowledge with you surfs (kidding).
Augustine develops that all learning is good, and in fact no one can “learn” evil. In his later works he develops the idea of “original sin,” which is where we get that doctrine. So in fact we don’t have to “learn” how to do evil, but how to do good.
I’m sure that you’ve heard this before. A common analogy in the church is “you don’t have to teach a baby how to be bad, it already knows how to be a stealing, lying, cheater that only desires what is in his/her best interests. You have to teach it how to be good.” What I hadn’t contemplated before is the second part, we have to be taught how to be good. In fact, without being taught, there is no way that we can learn to be good. First comes teaching, and then comes learning. When we learn, we act; because we understand that we ought to act in a certain way.
What I instantly thought of is, why are so many people in the church still refusing to be Spirit led, and cling to sin more than to Christ? The answer is simple, it is not the pastor (though sometimes it is) because he is teaching the Word, (2 Timothy 3:16) it is the people sitting in the pews. The average church goer, literally, is unwilling to learn. If they were willing to learn, they would not do evil. For “it follows that doing evil is nothing more than turning away from learning.” (Augustine 2)
Works Cited
Augustinus, Aurelius, and Thomas Williams. On Free Choice of the Will. Indianapolis U.a.: Hackett, 1993. Print.
ESV Bible
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