On Dominion and Original Sin

and how Augustinian scholars are showing his true colors

Apologies for the theological nerd angle of this post, but even if you’re one of my more Buddh-ish readers, I think you’ll find the overarching theme relevant.

In the small and often myopic world that is academic religious scholarship, two bombshell books on Augustine of Hippo (yes, that one, the original sin guy) have just been published. Let me first openly admit that I have not read them and I do not plan to do so. With shelves of books sagging under the weight of my unread pile, I made the decision years ago that I was finished investing my time in exploring books whose theology I feel I already know and mostly reject. Y’all, I read all of Calvin’s Institutes. I’m good. I’m always open to being wrong, and learning new things; I’m less open to feeling the need to rehash the stuff I already feel clear about. I am reclaiming my time by reading instead books that will help me envision the kind of world I want to help create.

But on to Augustine.

The first of these books is Toni Alimi’s Slaves of God: Augustine and Other Romans on Religion and Politics. The back matter says, “An illuminating work of scholarship, Slaves of God reveals how slavery was integral to Augustine's views about law, rule, accountability, and citizenship” and what bearing that has on his theological understanding of the relationship between humanity and God.

Y’all. Of course it did.

I am deeply grateful for the vast amount of scholarship and time Alimi has put into this book and all the ways this will convince readers to see the broader paradigm at play. But it is not ground-breaking. It’s Augustine’s whole GROUND. His entire theology is built upon his idea that we are not worthy, that there is a flaw within humanity at the level of our very being. How is it a surprise that this works out to a theology which says we are slaves to a slightly more benevolent “God” than a human master and we are to feel grateful for it?! This is what we get with original sin. It is a morally questionable hierarchy that enforces a paradigm of dominion onto all of creation. In original sin, dominion is the lens through which we see the world. God rules, and we are God’s unworthy subjects.

Consider one of Augustine’s most well-known phrases: “You have made us for yourselves, and our hearts are restless until they find rest in You.”

If somehow we could ask God why God made us, do you honestly think God’s answer would be “for myself?”