Augustinian theodicies

• Augustinian Theodicy

  • The universe is good - augustine argues that God is good and that he made the world free from flaws
  • 'God saw all that he had made and it was very good' - Genesis
• Augustinian theodicy - Evil is not a substance

  • He further argues that evil is not actually a substance and God did not create it
  • Evil is the perversion of something that is, in itself good
  • Augustine called evil a privation of good - an absence / lack
• Augustine theodicy - The fall

  • Argues that evil entered the world when the angels and first humans turned from God
• Augustinian theodicy - Free will

  • augustine argued that God created humans with free will
  • however in giving free will comes the possibility of actualising evil
  • if we chose our own paths then we can choose the wrong way
• Augustinian theodicy - Soul deciding

  • because of free will, we can decide our own fate through individual choices
• Augustinian theodicy - Original sin

  • augustine further argued that the first sin of Adam and Eve is passed on to all humans and refer to us as being 'seminally present' in Adam
  • Jordan states 'We inherit his guilt for disobeying God'
• Augustinian theodicy- Natural evil is a punishment for moral evil

  • argues that because the first sin destroyed the natural order of things that God created, Augustine states 'all evil is either a sin or a punishment for a sin'
• Augustinian theodicy - Redemption through Christ

  • proposes that God is still merciful and if he was simply just, everyone would receive their rightful punishment in hell
• Augustinian theodicy AO3

  + Clears God of any responsibility for the existence of evil - rather the angels and humans who turned away from God are responsible - free will

  - However Schleirmacher argues that its a logical contradiction to say that 'a perfectly created world had gone wrong because this would mean that the evil had come out of nothing'

  • if everything depends on God for its existence then he must be involved in human actions - free will
• Augustinian theodicy AO3

  - If the world was created perfect and there was no knowledge of good and evil, how could there be freedom to obey and disobey God

  • If humans chose to disobey God then knowledge of good and evil must have already existed +

  + However - for a loving relationship to be satisfactory both sides must have the freedom to choose - God had to give humans the freedom to willingly choose to love him -- this freedom does come with the risk that humans will reject his love
• Augustinian theodicy AO3

  - If God is all powerful could he not have created humans who are free with no evil - Jesus Christ chose only to do good

  + However Alvin Plantinga says that no evil would be logically impossible - If God created humans to only ever do right then this would contradict their freedom
• Augustinian theodicy AO3

  + Appeals to conservative Christians because is consistent with the Genesis account of creation - biblically based

  - However it is not consistent with the scientific theory of evolution which maintains that humans evolved over a period of time rather than where created perfectly

  • However some Christians maintain that Genesis is not a literal account but a symbolic one showing all the sin that humans do by choice
• Augustinian theodicy AO3

  + Because evil is not a substance it was not originally part of God's creative work

  - However many feel that to call evil a privation or a lack/absence is unsatisfactory - argue that evil is a real entity