April 7, 2016 ALL

Today: The Augustine Lecture “Augustine and the Irish”

The great North African theologian Augustine of Hippo (354-430) created the doctrine of Original Sin which asserted that when Adam and Eve disobeyed God and ate the forbidden fruit, the entire human race was condemned to hell for all eternity except for some few predestined individuals who received divine grace. Furthermore, human nature had been so corrupted that there was no possibility of natural goodness. All of the Western Europe churches-except one-accepted this teaching. The Irish alone insisted on the possibility of natural goodness and opposed Augustinian predestinationism.

In a power point presentation, Joseph Kelly, Ph.D., will explain why and how the Irish opposed Augustine and defended the possibility of natural goodness and the salvation of many. Dr. Kelly is a theology and religious studies professor and will speak on Thursday, April 7, at 7:30 p.m. in the LSC Conference Room.