Confessions, written by Saint Augustine, is an autobiography about his sinful life and redemption in a philosophical and religious manner. Augustine tries to imagine God as a being and pays attention to the nature of evil. He claims that evil God did not create evil, therefore it is not a thing. In his book Augustine also touches base with the subject topic of how to grasp God, how to speak with God and the difference between imagination and understanding in regard to the knowledge of God.
In the search of finally understanding evil and the being of God, Augustine understands who God is and what He stands for. He claimed that for God evil does not exists because He had created all things to be good. All element of the world are good, but may
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This claim is not a good idea because there is no place in the bible that shows that God believed that evil does not exist. In fact, during the time of creation God saw that everything he created was good, except when He created humans. Donald Cress, author of Augustine’s Privation Account of Evil, argued that Augustine’s privation of evil claims that “evil itself is not something real and positive, but rather parasitic on what is and is good” (Cress 109). He went to show the perspective of Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of Christian Science, who believes that “evil is illusory and utterly unreal” (Cress112). It is also argued that all God creates and can create is good and since evil is a non-being, then God is not and could not have created evil. In which Augustine argues that evil is a very real and very powerful and his privation theory clearly claims the reality and power of …show more content…
He claims that Augustine’s approach was not only brilliant, but it was also practical. “Evil can be phrased in several way: 1) God created all things; 2) evil is a thing; 3) therefore, God created evil”(Koukl). These three theories, stated by Koukl, supports Augustine’s claim that all things created by God is good, evil is not good, therefore evil was not created by God. The problem with this is that in the Confession, Augustine talks about how evil his actions were evil. However, where are all these actions coming from? They must have originated from something and created by something. So, if evil is not created by God, then what or who is it created
St. Augustine’s Confessions is written through the Christian perspective of religion. Christianity is founded on the idea that there is one God who oversees all actions. Though all actions are observed by a higher power, God instills in us a free will. As Christians we are free to make our own decisions whether right or wrong. In his Biography St Augustine expresses that he feels like a sinner. He struggles with the fact that he is a thrill seeker. He loves to watch blood sports. He watches gladiators fight to the death and commit murder. Not only does he watch, but he enjoys observing these acts. He is also expressing his sins in his biography when he writes about stealing, which is another sin. He steals pears for fun. St Augustine doesn’t even eat the pears he steals, but throws them to the pigs to eat. Through the story St Augustine struggles interna...
7-12- Again Augustines thoughts on God reflect that of the religious teachings of his day, namely those of the Neoplatonists. For example he refuses to speculate on how the soul joins the body to become an infant and even follows Plato when he suggests that this life could possibly be some kind of “living death”. He then goes into an examination of his infancy, which he depicts as a quite pitiful state. He described himself as a sinful and thoughtless creature who made demands on everyone, wept unceasingly, and gave everyone a hard time that took care of him. Though very brutal in his self examination, he later states that he does not hold himself accountable for any of these sinful acts because he simply can’t remember them.
In Augustine's Confessions, the early church father puts forth a complex theodicy in which he declares evil to be nonexistent. Such a leap may seem to be illogical, but this idea stems from the understanding of what is substance and what is not. According to Augustine, the duality of good and evil is false, because anything that is good is substance and what humans think of as evil is simply the absence of the good (Confessions, 126). Vices for example, are just the display of the absence of the good. Pride is the absence of humility, unrighteous anger the absence of temperance, and so on. This idea is evident as he writes that the ability to be corrupted is what makes something good, not i...
In book 8 of Confessions it divulges the story of the moral conversion of Augustine written in 386 AD (Russo 14). In the beginning of the book it starts by explaining how Augustine obtained knowledge from the books of the epistles of St. Paul and the Platonists. Despite being aware that God is real, and is the supreme being of righteousness and power, he still ambivalent of it being not sufficient. In the book, he struggles with recognizing the contrast in logically being aware of something and following the bible by living a righteous life. For example, in the book it states “there is a difference between knowing what is good and going the good” (Russo 14). Later, he had an epiphany that the reason he cannot discover the difference between
“And I strained to perceive what I now heard, that free-will was the cause of our doing ill.” (The Confessions of Saint Augustine, 1996, p.154) After reading Book Seven, Augustine’s questioning of evil is understandable. If God is truly good, the question lies, where does evil come from? His overall idea that we create most of the evil in the world because of our right to choose, also known as free will, is very accurate. From how I have been brought up and my views on the world so far, I agree wholeheartedly with this statement. I believe that we have free will and with that free will we can either do good or bad in the world, but the choice is ultimately ours. This idea can also be linked to Augustine’s belief that one can be changed through God. If we have the right to choose good or evil, then those choices will shape us overall. For example, if someone decides to choose evil and give into their worst desires, but later on in life decides to choose good, then they have changed themselves for the good with God’s help of free will.
Confessions by Augustine is a theological autobiography about confessions. What did it mean to confess? To confess in Augustine’s time was meant both to give an account of fault to God and to praise God. Augustine talks about his sinfulness and his faithfulness to his God. Confessions is a story of Augustine’s life, starting from his birth to his mothers death. “You have made us for yourselves, O God, and our hearts are restless until they rest in You.”(Confessions, 1.1.1)
Augustine’s interpretation of the human memory serves as an answer to the mystery that surrounds the concept and provides his readers somewhat of a “peace of mind” after reading his analyses in Book 10. Confessions is a powerful piece of philosophical literature that has helped shape modern Christianity as we read and practice.
Also, he considered Gods creation to be harmonious and so evil is not a separate entity, but a deviation from good. Augustine’s view is that evil came into the world through the ‘fall’. He said that angels were all created perfect, but misused the freedom God had provided for them and as a result decided to turn from God, the Highest Good, to ‘lesser goods’. Adam and Eve were then tempted by Satan, a fallen angel, in the Garden of Eden. By breaking Gods command, and eating the forbidden fruit, Adam brought original sin into the world. Sin was now seminally present in Adam, and so therefore every generation is guilty due to them inheriting his guilt for disobeying God. The reason being that when Adam was teste4d in the Garden of Eden he was representing the entire human race, therefore all humans- including innocent babies, deserve to suffer. This is emphasised by Paul, who came up with the idea that sin was present ‘in the lions of Adam’. He wrote in ‘Romans 5:12’: “therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death came through sin, and so death spread to all because all have
If God exists and is all-knowing, then there is no evil that God does not know about. If God exists and is morally perfect, then there is no evil that God would permit that He cannot prevent.
“Please tell me: isn’t God the cause of evil?” (Augustine, 1). With this question to Augustine of Hippo, Evodius begins a philosophical inquiry into nature of evil. Augustine, recently baptized by Saint Ambrose in Milan, began writing his treatise On Free Choice of the Will in 387 C.E. This work laid down the foundation for the Christian doctrine regarding the will’s role in sinning and salvation. In it, Augustine and his interlocutor investigate God’s existence and his role in creating evil. They attempt not only to understand what evil is, and the possibility of doing evil, but also to ascertain why God would let humans cause evil. Central to the premise of this entire dialogue is the concept of God, as relates to Christianity; what is God, and what traits separate Him from humans? According to Christianity, God is the creator of all things, and God is good; he is omnipotent, transcendent, all-knowing, and atemporal- not subject to change over time- a concept important to the understanding of the differences between this world and the higher, spiritual realm He presides over. God’s being is eidos, the essence which forms the basis of humans. With God defined, the core problem being investigated by Augustine and Evodius becomes clear. Augustine states the key issue that must be reconciled in his inquiry; “we believe that everything that exists comes from the one God, and yet we believe that God is not the cause of sins. What is troubling is that if you admit that sins come from… God, pretty soon you’ll be tracing those sins back to God” (Augustine, 3).
... effects of a corrupting entity, what then is Christ’s work? How can a physical sacrifice save the world from sliding into nonexistence? The answer comes from another adjustment; Christ comes to pull creation back towards the eternal God. Salvation through Christ is does not look like Him coming as a warrior to vanquish the evil forces, but Him coming as a loving servant to heal the corrupted beings (i.e. sinners) back to their original state of grace. Thus, the idea of there being a war between forces of God and Evil is not compatible with truth of the Gospel; rather that God designed the world in harmony and wishes it to return to this state. This proves that, in the end, Augustine’s answer to the problem of evil is correct in accordance to Christian Confession.
It is perhaps the most difficult intellectual challenge to a Christian how God and evil can both exist. Many of the greatest minds of the Christian church and intellects such as Augustine and Thomas Aquinas spent their entire lives trying to solve this problem, and were unsuccessful (Erickson, 2009, p.439). However, this dilemma is not only an intellectual challenge, but it is emotional. Man feels it, lives it. Failing to identify the religious form of the problem of evil will appear insensitive; failure to address the theological form will seem intellectually insulting. This conundrum will never be completely met during our earthly life, but there are many biblical and philosophical resources that help mitigate it.
Author Claudia Gray stated, “Self-knowledge is better than self-control any day” (Goodreads). Evil and sin exists in our world today and the temptation they bring bounds many human’s spiritual being. Finding the root of all evil is a hard and torturous concept to understand, but knowing one’s own free will helps bring understanding and deliverance from the evils of the world. Throughout the book Confessions Saint Augustine “ponders the concepts of evil and sin and searches the root of their being” (Augustine 15). The existence of evil is one of the most worrisome challenges a Christian or any individual deals with throughout life. Saint Augustine’s beliefs concerning the root of all evil and sins transforms as he begins to grow and develop in the knowledge of his free will and spiritual being. Early on, he believes “God created all things and evil is a thing, therefore God created evil” (Augustine 73-74). From this he conceives the notion that God cannot be good if he knowingly created evil. As Augustine begins to grow in his spiritual walk, his views begin to evolve as he questions his Manichee’s beliefs and explores the concepts of good and evil. From his inquiring Augustine develops the question, what is evil and what if evil did not need creating? He asks, “Do we have any convincing evidence that a good God exists” (Augustine 136-137)?
Evil exists. This bizarre conundrum has perplexed philosophers since the dawn of civilization, and remains in hot debate today because of the theological implications inherent in the statement. To many on this planet, the source of life is an all-loving, all-powerful, omniscient god who created the universe – and all the laws therein – in seven days, as described in the Bible. And yet still, evil exists. How can these two premises be simultaneously true? Surely, an all-loving god would want to do something about this problem, and an all-powerful god could absolutely remedy a situation if it so desired. It seems as though the common perception of the Bible’s god is inaccurate. However, it could be argued that the Bible’s god is accurate, and that said perception is somewhat skewed, considering that on numerous occasions, God claims responsibility for evil. “I make peace and create evil. I the Lord do all these things.” (Isaiah 45:7). The Greek philosopher Epicurus put the Good God’s Evil puzzle in a very clear logical progression:
In De Libero Arbitrio Book I, Augustine states that Evil has no teacher, so when people do evil, they are the cause of their own suffering. The question then becomes, did we learn how to sin? Augustine would say that learning is classified as a good and therefore, we do not learn evil. Augustine states, teaching produces understanding , which would make understanding a good, and if understanding is good then a person who understands eternal law/morals will do good, therefore, evil cannot be taught because it does not produce true understanding of the eternal law . In order to move forward through Augustine’s argument it is important to understand what is conside...