Augustine's View Of God And Evil By J. Patout Burns

This article, written by J. Patout Burns, outlines the development of Augustine’s views on Evil, specifically in connection to God. To begin, the author gives a summary of Augustine’s original thoughts on God and evil, which followed the Manichean principles of binary or dualistic thinking. However, in exchanging ideas with philosopher Plotinus, Augustine’s views shifted to accept a different take on God with a more Platonic perspective. The author also outlines Augustine’s ideas in regard to material and immaterial beings, as well as whether evil may be contained in either. The issue of sins, how they are accomplished and their effects, is discussed too, and the author particularly focuses on Augustine’s writings (On Free Will, Confessions, and other works). Upon acquiring more information on God and evil, Augustine grew to realize that the concept of evil (or Dark, as described in the paper) contradicts the idea of God. This is established with the concept that God is all-powerful, and yet evil still exists. If God is indeed all-present, then should he not be capable of ridding the world of Evil? How could He allow for such darkness to exist?
It was with Plotinus’ guidance and wisdom that Augustine came to learn of God’s immaterial nature. Augustine also grew to understand the idea that a being’s status of evil is dependent on both its relation to God and whether corruption has transpired. As stated in the article, “To the degree that a being does exist and act, its reality derives from God; to the extent that it fails in being and falls short in operation, it is evil” (Burns 1988). Finally, Augustine was redirected to his Christianity, as he later claims that humans’ love of self over God, otherwise known as pride, is essentially the greatest of