1. Insight

The Fall, Original Sin, and Grace

Augustine’s Teaching on Human Nature

Content

• Human relationships pre- and post-Fall

• Original Sin and its effects on the will and human societies

• God’s grace

Key Knowledge

• Augustine’s interpretation of Genesis 3 (the Fall) including:

  • the state of perfection before the Fall and Adam and Eve’s relationship as friends

  • lust and selfish desires after the Fall

• Augustine’s teaching that Original Sin is passed on through sexual intercourse and is the cause of:

  • human selfishness and lack of free will

  • lack of stability and corruption in all human societies

• Augustine’s teaching that only God’s grace, his generous love, can overcome sin and the rebellious will to achieve the greatest good (summum bonum)

Heaven, Hell, Purgatory

Death and the Afterlife

Content

• Christian teaching on:

  • heaven

  • hell

  • purgatory

  • election

Key Knowledge

• different interpretations of heaven, hell and purgatory, including:

  • heaven, hell and purgatory are actual places where a person may go after death and experience physical and emotional happiness, punishment or purification

  • heaven, hell and purgatory are not places but spiritual states that a person experiences as part of their spiritual journey after death

  • heaven, hell and purgatory are symbols of a person’s spiritual and moral life on Earth and not places or states after death

• different Christian views of who will be saved, including:

  • limited election (that only a few Christians will be saved)

  • unlimited election (that all people are called to salvation but not all are saved)

  • universalist belief (that all people will be saved)

• the above to be studied with reference to the key ideas in Jesus’ parable on Final Judgement, ‘The Sheep and the Goats’ (Matthew 25:31–46)