ABSTRACT
The culture of authenticity founded upon the idea of self-love and the self-sufficient individual prevails in our society today. Its criterion of ethical judgment is criticized as subjective in contrast to the objective moral order championed by Stoicism and Christianity. Is this main feature of modernity a break from Christianity? Or is it an evolution of Christian theology? If we want to better understand the ethics of authenticity, we have to consider the historical context of its development. Rousseau and Augustine are two important candidates for such a study. This essay considers Augustine as Rousseau’s interlocutor and the Confessions as a response to St. Augustine’s Confessions. The main theme of both Confessions is the problem of evil and human salvation. Both thinkers investigate the problem of self-love, which is the source of pride, shame, and jealousy, and therefore evil.
