Augustine interpreted his school beatings as inherited punishment for Adam’s sin

Evidence

But I was sent to school to learn letters, of what use they were I knew not, and yet, if I was slow in learning, I was beaten. For this was praised by our elders, and many, having gone this way before us, had laid down for us those toilsome paths, through which we were forced to pass, multiplying labor and sorrow upon the sons of Adam. — , The Rod and the Child, 681

Categorization

• DEFINE: Shows the exact Confessions passage where Augustine retroactively frames childhood beatings as the sorrow of Adam’s sons, the origin point of the doctrine.
• XREF: Connects to the doctrine of original sin and to the episode’s thesis about theological authorization of the cane. — connects to: Ambrose produced the earliest Christian argument linking original sin to corporal punishment — , The Rod and the Child: A Global History…, 1638; Augustine’s original-sin doctrine suppressed the Pauline no-provoke framework in Western practice — , The Rod and the Child: A Global History…, 2772; A tradition’s view of the child’s moral nature determines its stance on corporal punishment — , The Rod and the Child: A Global History…, 4202

Related

• Ambrose produced the earliest Christian argument linking original sin to corporal punishment (similarity 0.84)
• Augustine’s original-sin doctrine suppressed the Pauline no-provoke framework in Western practice (similarity 0.83)
• Original sin theology committed Christianity to the cane for salvation (similarity 0.81)
• Eastern Orthodoxy rejected inherited guilt and taught only ancestral sin (similarity 0.81)
• Eastern Orthodox ancestral-sin doctrine does not theologically require corporal punishment (similarity 0.80)

Broader Connections

• A tradition’s view of the child’s moral nature determines its stance on corporal punishment #exemplifies (0.75) — , The Rod and the Child, 4202