Metaphors of Sin and Disability in Augustine's Anti‐Pelagian Writings

Abstract

This article examines Augustine's use of theological metaphor in his anti‐Pelagian writings. Drawing on disability studies in theology and literary theory, it explores how Augustine uses metaphors of disability to provide a material anchor for his concept of sin in Nature and Grace and The Grace of Christ and Original Sin. However, the article proffers that in The Nature and Origin of the Soul, Augustine offers us a model of apophatic theological metaphor which might benefit our figurative theological landscape for conceptualising sin. This latter metaphorical mode might be seen as being congruent with the priorities of contemporary disability theology, and provides a method to disrupt the analogy between sin and disability. The article finally uses these tools to re‐examine the story of Bartimaeus in Luke's gospel with a redistributed hermeneutic, and argues for the pastoral benefits of a more underdetermined approach to our concept of sin.