Augustine's Theodicy Analysis
Augustine’s Theodicy
A theodicy is a philosophical study, which attempts to satisfy the problem of the existence of evil and suffering alongside the existence of the God of Classical Theism, a God who is omnipotent, omnibenevolent, and omniscient. Augustine of Hippo (354-430 CE) tries to justify the righteousness of God; Augustine’s theodicy heavily refers and relates to key biblical passages. Therefore his theodicy is an attempt to solve the problem of suffering. Augustine uses the story of the Fall in Genesis 1:27 to argue that God intended for the world to be a perfect place but due to Adam and Eve committing the Original Sin they consequently bought evil into the world. Evil is therefore not from …show more content…
God as his creation is faultless and perfect but instead came from within the world according to Augustine.
He rejected the idea that evil and good exist equally in the universe and battle each other.
To answer the question if God is good and omnipotent and if it was God who created the world why is there evil? Augustine concluded that God is the author of everything created in the universe, therefore evil is not a thing otherwise this gives the implication that God is evil and Augustine disagrees with this. He argues instead that evil is the ‘privation’ of good; it only exits if people abandon the goodness that God created us with. By this he means that by using the word ‘evil’ we are saying that something does not meet our expectations of what it should be like by nature. Augustine stated “God made a good world but humans chose not to obey God so the goodness of the world went wrong.” Evil is therefore not an entity but only exists if someone from the kingdom of God bestows it upon the Earth and goes against the divine scheme of …show more content…
things.
Augustine uses the analogy of blindness to further explain this. Blindness is not an entity but merely the absence of sight; similarly, evil is not an entity but merely the absence of good. To conclude, evil came about by a direct misuse of free will. Natural evil has been caused by the imbalance of nature instigated by the misuse of free will and moral evil is caused as the world has become estranged from God and immortality has been able to thrive. There is further evidence from the Bible that supports the theodicy that the world is suffering through the act of God but there is a way for redemption which was planned by God who saw the fall in the beginning as God is omniscient, ‘For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him’ (John 3:17). Here God’s grace is showcased, an example of his omnibenevolent characteristic.
Based on the theodicy Augustine believes that God is perfect, as he created ‘ex nihilo’.
The world created mirrors perfection, with this perfect world came the creation of moral autonomy to all human beings and angels. After evil and suffering entered the world due to the Original Sin, came the Fall of Archangel Lucifer. In consequence, disharmony and chaos was bought in to the world and to living beings due to the absence of good in themselves, which tempted the world, as we are Adam’s ‘limbs’. We are ‘seminally’ present in them so we deserve to be punished in consequence. Augustine stated that ‘All evil is either sin or the punishment for sin’. This explains moral and natural evil, as they are consequences of a Creation that was created by beings who had an absence of good. Both humans and nature malfunctioned. Therefore, God does not need to intervene as he gave beings the capacity of free will and they chose to commit sin and as a consequence there is evil and
suffering.
Augustine concludes that at the end of time there will be a judgement day, those who have lived with the absence of good will be sent to hell and those who have chose to live a life by God’s side will therefore enter into eternal life. The punishment of those who go to hell will therefore cancel out the absence of goodness in God’s creation so the universe would not be regarded as a ‘spoilt’ universe, evil will therefore not exist as goodness will no longer be absent but instead it will be eliminated. He stated, ‘…the universe is perfect and it is no less perfect because there is misery for sinners….’ (On Free will 111,1x.26)
A theodicy is a philosophical study, which attempts to satisfy the problem of the existence of evil and suffering alongside the existence of the God of Classical Theism, a God who is omnipotent, omnibenevolent, and omniscient. Augustine of Hippo (354-430 CE) tries to justify the righteousness of God; Augustine’s theodicy heavily refers and relates to key biblical passages. Therefore his theodicy is an attempt to solve the problem of suffering. Augustine uses the story of the Fall in Genesis 1:27 to argue that God intended for the world to be a perfect place but due to Adam and Eve committing the Original Sin they consequently bought evil into the world. Evil is therefore not from …show more content…
God as his creation is faultless and perfect but instead came from within the world according to Augustine.
He rejected the idea that evil and good exist equally in the universe and battle each other.
To answer the question if God is good and omnipotent and if it was God who created the world why is there evil? Augustine concluded that God is the author of everything created in the universe, therefore evil is not a thing otherwise this gives the implication that God is evil and Augustine disagrees with this. He argues instead that evil is the ‘privation’ of good; it only exits if people abandon the goodness that God created us with. By this he means that by using the word ‘evil’ we are saying that something does not meet our expectations of what it should be like by nature. Augustine stated “God made a good world but humans chose not to obey God so the goodness of the world went wrong.” Evil is therefore not an entity but only exists if someone from the kingdom of God bestows it upon the Earth and goes against the divine scheme of …show more content…
things.
Augustine uses the analogy of blindness to further explain this. Blindness is not an entity but merely the absence of sight; similarly, evil is not an entity but merely the absence of good. To conclude, evil came about by a direct misuse of free will. Natural evil has been caused by the imbalance of nature instigated by the misuse of free will and moral evil is caused as the world has become estranged from God and immortality has been able to thrive. There is further evidence from the Bible that supports the theodicy that the world is suffering through the act of God but there is a way for redemption which was planned by God who saw the fall in the beginning as God is omniscient, ‘For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him’ (John 3:17). Here God’s grace is showcased, an example of his omnibenevolent characteristic.
Based on the theodicy Augustine believes that God is perfect, as he created ‘ex nihilo’.
The world created mirrors perfection, with this perfect world came the creation of moral autonomy to all human beings and angels. After evil and suffering entered the world due to the Original Sin, came the Fall of Archangel Lucifer. In consequence, disharmony and chaos was bought in to the world and to living beings due to the absence of good in themselves, which tempted the world, as we are Adam’s ‘limbs’. We are ‘seminally’ present in them so we deserve to be punished in consequence. Augustine stated that ‘All evil is either sin or the punishment for sin’. This explains moral and natural evil, as they are consequences of a Creation that was created by beings who had an absence of good. Both humans and nature malfunctioned. Therefore, God does not need to intervene as he gave beings the capacity of free will and they chose to commit sin and as a consequence there is evil and
suffering.
Augustine concludes that at the end of time there will be a judgement day, those who have lived with the absence of good will be sent to hell and those who have chose to live a life by God’s side will therefore enter into eternal life. The punishment of those who go to hell will therefore cancel out the absence of goodness in God’s creation so the universe would not be regarded as a ‘spoilt’ universe, evil will therefore not exist as goodness will no longer be absent but instead it will be eliminated. He stated, ‘…the universe is perfect and it is no less perfect because there is misery for sinners….’ (On Free will 111,1x.26)