THE MUTATION OF THE AUGUSTINIAN CONCEPT OF THE HUMAN BODY. CRITICAL LOOK AT THE OVERCOMING OF DUALISM BY MONISM BY A CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHER?

ABSTRACT: Between his writings of his youth and those of his maturity, Saint Augustine did not remainconstant in the conception of the human body. If the former opposes the body to the soul which transcends it,the latter suppresses this opposition and reconcile them in a monism which will have, through the mysteries ofthe Incarnation and the Resurrection, purged the body of its harmful concupiscence. This reflection strives toshow that the body, integrated into Augustinian monism, is no longer a component of the ordinary man who isin the empirical world where he satisfies his libido, it is a metaphysical entity specific to angels. It is also aquestion of showing that this monism, with the hints of a metaphysical totality, lives on the celebration of thedeath of the material body as the basis of the libido, even though liberals are increasingly thinking of acodification of sex life in a Christian environment, the quest for happiness not excluding the enjoyment of thebenefits of libido which is, like faith, one of the essential natural elements on which man bends to rise with joyto God, source of happiness.

Keywords –soul, body, God, dualism, monism