A Study On Augustine's Theory Of Human

Augustine's theory of human has very important historical influences and practical significances in the development of Christian philosophy or even the whole western philosophy. Up to the present time, however, no one has studied and summarized its thinking sources, central contents, theoretical values, and ultimate limitations from the angle of Marxism.In order to accomplish this mission and enrich Marxist humanism study, we begin our study by a preparatory investigation on its backgrounds, especially on its relation with the mediaeval Christianity and the Greco-Roman philosophy. Based on this investigation, we analyze and reduce its idealistic frame as four central parts, i.e. the essence of man and the image of God, the origin sin of man and the freewill of man, the existence of man and the interregnum of existence, the realization of humanity and the grace of God. And we probe and generalize them according to the rationale of Marxism.This article holds that its theoretical values mainly include two sides: first, the essence of man is expressed deeply in Augustine's theory of human than in previous theories;Besides, Augustine's discussion on freewill deepens our understanding the freedom of man. Of course, some ultimate limitations exist in Augustine's theory, since the theoretical base of it is quite unspecific, but the actual human is the start point of Marxist study on human, which strives to expose the source, existence, freedom and essence of man in social practice, thereby it widens our field of vision .