傳統上我們將奧古斯丁視為典型基督教神學家，而認為他所描述的libido 是從伊甸園開始便是惡的和羞恥的，且它在強大的驅力下讓身體不受意志控制而犯下過錯。但libido 在現代有了全新的釋義，這讓我們回過頭來重新思考奧古斯丁式libido 以及它與意志、羞恥感的聯繫。傅科在《性史》第四卷中為奧古斯丁式libido 提供了一種不同尋常的解讀，他認為libido 處於自我意志之中，且是主體使用libido 時對自身的道德辯護；同時他也看到，奧古斯丁對性經驗的態度從傳統基督教的禁絕傾向轉向了適當利用傾向，讓西方社會的性經驗走向了逐步道德化的進程。

Traditionally, we think Augustine as a typical Christian theologist. And we identify Augustine’s libido as a shameful sin, which has a powerful drive to pull the human body away from the control of the will and to compel human beings committing crimes. Libido has a new meaning since Freud’s theory of psychoanalysis, so we need to turn back to Augustine to refigure out what is libido in his term, and what is its relationships to the human will as well as to the feeling of shame. Now Foucault offers an untraditional understanding on Augustinian libido in his History of Sexuality volume 4, Les aveux de la chaire. Foucault argues that libido is not as traditionally think, as is outside the will, but rather is exactly in the will, and the process of feeling shameful of libido is a moral process by which the subject uses as the legalized justification to make defense of himself. He also discovers that Augustine’s attitudes towards sexual desire and sexual activities are quite ambivalent, and this is the key to understand the process of moralization of sexuality in Western societies.