Aquinas vs. Augustine on Their Varying Views of Women

St Thomas doubting Thomas and St Augustine of hippopotamus are considered to be two of the majusculeest Christian theologians in the history of Christianity. Both of these hands are a persona of the same organization, the Church. Just by this fact it would be easy to assume that they see on tot every last(predicate)y major issues of the day that this is not the case. They pass on completely differing views with respect to wowork force in secular and religious life corresponding with the nous of archetype nefariousnesse, hu worldly concern cozyity, and social roles.Even in the modern Catholic Church they are still opineed as two of the most important doctors of the church service despite their different teachings on key important aspects of leading a Christian life. This shows the variability deep down the institution of the Catholic Church and some degrees of disagreement indoors a major faith organization. St Augustine of Hippo termed the idea of original infract. N owhere in the history of the church had all such concept been taught. He was a man who lived a life of sin and promiscuity until he had an extreme innovation.After this conversion he deficiencyed a way to justify all his bad decisions. He did so by terming original sin as the first sin made by Eve that doomed all of mankind for the stick of days. Augustine blames Eve for all the bad experiences in his life, even for all the bad decisions that he has made. He uses original sin and reveals the idea in such a way that no matchless has to take responsibility for his or her actions because it is innate in us to be bad. Original sin gives volume an easy out to excuse all previous bad behavior.Never before had the term original sin been placed on the sins of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Augustines practice session of an ideal fair sex, his m opposite, is even faulted by this original sin caused by Eve. the torments which she suffered were proof that she had inherited the le gacy of Eve, seeking in sorrow what with sorrow she had brought into the world (Confessions, 101). It is as if woman bay windownot help but be lesser than man. Even his m otherwise, who he has a high regard for, is as serious as she can befor a woman, It is not of her gifts that I shall speak, but of the gifts you gave to her (Confessions, 192).Original sin is possessed by all humankind and cannot be avoided, this makes it easy for people to remain blameless for sins they prepare committed. St Thomas Aquinas did not believe in the idea of original sin. He believed that you make choices in life and that original sin was a way to get out of taking responsibility for all the actions that you make, so original sin is not the sin of this person except insofar as this person receives his character from his first leaven (The Summa, 44).He notices that in Genesis that man and woman are created by immortal before sin and by this interpretation it would be impossible for original sin to make it if it is inherent in mankind. What is subjective to man was neither interpreted away nor added to him by sin (The Summa, 40). Inadvertently by stating this, he is not blaming women for the fall of man. He didnt believe that woman should be blamed for every evil social occasion in the world. In fact, he agues that woman was made to perfect man and that without her he would not be whole and able to procreate. it was necessary for woman to be made as a helpmate to man (The Summa, 37). Woman is not condemned to be below man. Aquinas does not explicitly state this however he does omit mentioning woman as separate from man in his section of the order among man and other things. He states, Those of superior intellect are the raw(a) rulers while those who are less intelligent but have stronger bodies seem to be made by nature to serve (The Summa, 11). He is not sexual urge specific. In fact, one could read into this that most men are to be the servants because they have a stron ger public figure for working.Aquinas is much more for the idea of actual sin where the sin that is the result of the action of the someone upon the parts of the body (The Summa, 44). This means that each persons sin is based upon the choices that they make in their life, not from something that is passed down from the original man. In a different aspect, Augustine believes that human sexuality is fouled. His writing is in favor of rejecting his own sexual nature to live a life away from woman altogether. In his writing he always uses negative language to talk roughly sexuality.He writes somewhat a dream. He sees Continence and she says to him a quote from the Psalms Close your ears to the unclean whispers of your body, so that it may be mortified. It tells you of things that delight you, but not such things as the law of the Lord your immortal has to tell (Confessions, 176). These sexual lures are impure, and disordered. He has to turn away from all things sexual. Through al l his giving in to temptation in life he pulls a 180-degree turn once he converts and believes that he should never be with another woman again.He runs away from the general population and hides away in a monastery for the rest of his life. He changes from not being able to wait two years for a wife to have sex, to giving up sex forever. He feels like he had been greedy in the first part of his life and that the latter part should be given up to God. no bodily pleasure, however great it might be and whatever earthly light might shed luster upon it, was worthy of analogybeside the happiness of the life of the saints (Confessions, 197). Aquinas believes that human sexuality is innocent.He argues against the popular belief that woman is a misbegotten man by stating that woman is not something misbegotten but intended by nature to be directed to the work of education (The Summa, 38). He goes on to say in that paragraph that because God is the creator of all things, and he created mal e and female, it is obvious that God intended for man and woman to exist with each other equally in nature. Human sexuality is necessary for procreation. Sin does not trace whether or not human nature would procreate. What is natural to man was neither taken away nor added to him by sin (The Summa, 40).Sex is not a dirty act, quite the contrary it is a perfection of Gods creation. by nature there is a union of the male and female for the purpose of procreation (The Summa, 40). If the human race had never sinned and the world was in complete innocence we would still have the need to procreate and sex would be the necessary means to such. In the state of innocence, however, reproduction would have taken place without lust (The Summa, 40). Augustine had ideas for womans social roles as well. He had his mother as an example of an ideal woman and described how the ideal woman would be.Woman should behave a certain way. thither is no circumstance where a woman would be over a man in any situation. He uses the example of his mother who he praises as possessing modesty and temperanceobeying her parents (Confessions, 194) as well as serving her husband as her lord (Confessions, 194). With her husband she knew better than to say or do anything to disapprove him when he was angry (Confessions, 195) and encouraged other women to not defy their masters (Confessions, 195), in speaking about spousal relationships.In other words, woman should know their place and serve their husband without regard for self. He believed that the man was always to be placed first in every situation and that all women should be like his mother. Service should be a womans strong suit and it seems that Augustine believed that in this woman would be fulfilled. Aquinas believed that woman had worth and uses reason to prove this. Throughout his writings he uses non-gendered price to describe most things, which is a sign to the reader that he believes in equality amongst men and women.He does say t hat woman was not made to be subjective to man in that she is a buckle down to him. He points out the two different meanings of subjection. The one kind is a product of the result of sin. The other kind is that of the household or the citizen in which the superior makes us of his subjects for their benefit or good (The Summa, 38). He further specifies this to women when he says woman is naturally subject to man in this kind of subjection because by nature man possesses more discernment of the reason (The Summa, 38). In this, he is stating that there is a natural order to things.Not that woman is below the man in equality, but that there is simply a difference. This introduces the idea, separate but equal in a way. Man and woman are different, but to a fault man and man are different. There are many cases in existence where a loss leader is needed to take charge. This is not because the one man is highly superior to all other men or that all other men should be slaves to the one, b ut that someone is needed to be a leader someone can have dominion over another person as a free man, when he directs him to his own good or to the good of the community (The Summa, 39).He also introduces an idea that if a woman is raped, she has committed no sin. Previously, when a woman was raped she was unworthy of marriage and was termed dirty. Aquinas finds worth in woman, and introduces the voice of reason in non-gendered terms in order to have his philosophies available to both man and woman. In their writings, St. Thomas Aquinas and St Augustine of Hippo have presented significantly differing views on women and the roles that they should have in the world.These three areas are some of the most important aspects of leading a good Christian life. Even today, these two men are regarded as doctors of the church and their ideals and philosophies are taught, with little regard for the fact that some of the things they teach are completely opposite of each other. Through these vary ing ideas about original sin, human sexuality, and social roles of man and woman they have set the stage for diversity within the Catholic Church.