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are born with by virtue of being offspring of Adam. (Adam's first sin is not Original Sin; our sharing of
responsibility for Adam's sin is.)
orthodox: a term meaning "teaching the right thing to believe." From Augustine's perspective this means the same
thing as "catholic." The orthodox tradition of Christian thought (not to be confused with the Orthodox tradition,
capital O) includes Roman Catholics and Protestants as well as the Eastern Orthodox.
Pelagianism: the heretical teaching that fallen human beings do not need the special help of grace to obey God and
be righteous. Or "pursuit of wisdom."
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perseverance: in Augustine, this means adhering to a life of charity (and through repentance recovering from lapses
in charity) until you die. Salvation ultimately depends on perseverance, because those who die without charity are
damned.
person: from the Latin persona, meaning mask. Originally this referred to characters in a play (in ancient drama all
the characters wore masks), then to characters in the drama of life. Nicene theologians applied this term to the
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit: they are three persons but not three Gods. See hypostasis.
perversion: from a Latin word meaning to turn or twist away. When used by Augustine, this means the turning of
the will from God (it does not refer specifically to sexual perversions).
Platonism: the philosophical tradition that began with Plato. Its most important representative was Plotinus, the
founder of what scholars now call neoplatonism.
philosophy: translation of a Greek word meaning "love of wisdom."
predestination: in Augustine, this term means God's eternal plan to give grace to whomever He chooses.
res: Latin for thing (sometimes translated reality). Augustine typically pairs this word with signum (sign), nomen
(name), or verbum (word), each of which signifies some res or thing.
rhetoric: the art of eloquent and persuasive speaking; until his conversion Augustine made a career of teaching
rhetoric.
righteousness: the old translation for the biblical word meaning justice. In the Bible this is the quality of someone
who obeys God; in Paul and Augustine, it is also the product of the process of justification.
Sacrament: solemn Christian ritual involving use of material objects, e.g., baptism and Eucharist.
schismatic: someone separated from the Catholic Church not by false teaching (see heretic) but by breach of love.
See Donatists.
sensible: in Platonist philosophy, a technical term referring to objects that can be perceived by one of the five
senses. Opposite of intelligible. Every bodily thing is a sensible thing.
signum: Latin for sign. Often paired with res (see above).
simple: a technical term in ancient philosophy meaning incomposite, i.e., not made up of parts. A simple thing
cannot be fragmented or dissolved into its components because it has no components.
solipsism (from Latin for "only the self"): the belief that I am alone in the universe.
Son of God: in Christian theology, a technical term meaning Christ and often referring specifically to his eternal
existence as God.
soul: the principle of life in a body (Augustine will often use this word almost synonymously with the word life). In
Platonism the soul is regarded as nonbodily and immortal.
subordinationism: the view that the pre-incarnate Christ, the eternal Word of God, is an intermediary between God
and the Creation lower than God the Father but higher than the created world.
temporal: the opposite of eternal; having to do with time rather than eternity. Hence closely related (in Augustine's
usage) to words like mortal, perishable, transient, fleeting.
Thagaste: Augustine's place of birth and hometown in Africa.
theophany: Greek for "manifestation of God." A theological term designating visible manifestations of God in the
Bible i.e., any incident in which someone seems to see or hear God in person.
traditores: from the Latin word for "hand over," this word refers to Christians who handed over the Scriptures to the
Roman authorities during the imperial persecution of Christianity. Zealous Christians felt about the traditores the
same way that members of the French Resistance felt about collaborators (Frenchmen who collaborated with the
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