An Examination of Saint Augustine’s Doctrine of Original Sin: how it was possible for sin to enter a perfect world and what it means for mankind.

To Saint Augustine of Hippo, man is imperfect, a natural trait born unto every child as a result of “The Fall of Man.” Because man is imperfect, or more appropriately, has fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23), he cannot enter the City of God based solely on his existence, but instead, he must choose to love and seek God using his own free will. This deviance from God is the primary basis of Augustine’s theological doctrines. His ideas of government, virtue, and life lie in concordance with man’s fall from grace. While it may be easy to understand Augustine’s doctrines in theory, his philosophy of the “fallen man” may not be so clear. How was it possible that evil entered into a perfect world, and where did original sin come from if it was not part of creation?
To examine Augustine’s theory of original sin and how it was possible, we must first understand the circumstances of the world before the fall. Augustine, using references from the Bible, des...