Augustine

’s “Confessions” Essay, Research Paper

Augustine’s “Confessions”

A philosophical question faces Christians, and in fact all theists, that

challenges the belief in God. To theists, God is an omnipotent, perfect God.

He is good. Theists accept this, and embrace it, for how else can they worship

God and give their lives to Him unless He is good? However, n this world evil

is constantly seen all around us. Because God is the author of all things in

this world, and he is good, theists must then ask themselves what evil is and

where it came from. Augustine sets up an argument I his Confessions that

attempts to define evil, and in doing so he explains its existence.

To follow this argument, it is important to realize that Augustine

accepts some basic precepts regarding God and His creation. To begin with, God

is the author of everything. Augustine says, ?nothing that exists could exist

without you [God]? (1.2). God is the creator and source of all things. Again ?

. . . when He made the world He did not go away and leave it. By Him it was

created and in Him exists? (4.12). Nothing in this world exists apart from God.

Also, God is in control of everything in this world. ?Everything takes its

place according to your law? (1.7). Augustine clearly sets forth that God is

the creator and source of everything. Not only is He the source, but he is the

reason for its continued existence. The next step Augustine takes regards the

nature of God’s creation.

For Augustine, God is good, because everything He made is good. ?You

are our God, supreme Good, the Creator and Ruler of the universe? (1.20), and

again, ?Therefore, the God who made me must be good and all the good in me is

His?(1.20). Everything about God is good. There is no aspect of Him that is

lacking, false, or not good. These characteristics are in turn transferred to

His creation. ?You, my God, are the source of all good?(1.6). However,

Augustine makes an important distinction regarding the creation of good and evil

when he says, ?O Lord my God, creator and arbiter of all natural things, but

arbiter only, not creator, of sin?(1.10). The question of what evil is, and

where it came from, still remains.

Augustine establishes that everything God made is good, and since God

made everything, everything must be good. He than asks where evil could have

come from. After all, evil did not come from God, it must have come from a

source other than God. If this true, then is it not so that God could have been

prevented evil from entering into the world as He is God? Because we clearly

see evil in the world. Did God allow it to enter? This would seem to mean

either that God is not entirely good, or that he is not omniscient and all

powerful. These questions Augustine does his best to answer.

First, Augustine establishes a definition of evil. Originally, he

believed that evil had substance. ?I believed that evil, too was some similar

kind of substance . . . And because such little piety as I had compelled me to

believe that God, who is good, could not have created evil nature, I imagined

that there were two antagonistic masses, both of which were infinite, yet the

evil in a lesser and the good in a greater degree?(5.10). However, his view

changes later, where he says that, ?Evil is nothing but the removal of good

until finally no good remains?(3.7). Under this definition, evil does exist as

a substance. Instead, it is the result of a removal; of good until there is

nothing left, at which time the object/person would cease to exist in a physical

realm. ?And evil, the origin of which I was trying to find, is not because if

it were a substance, it would be good?(7.12).

Augustine approaches this issue from an entirely different angle. First

he says: Do we have any good evidence that God even exists? If He does, is He

good? So he develops his argument from natural theology. He looks for

independent evidence available to us that God is real and He is good.

That is why Augustine properly starts with proofs for the existence of

God and once establishing that there is good reason to believe He exists and HE

is good, then that produces a different kind of series of statements. All that

God created is good, evil is not good. Therefore, evil is not something that

God created.

This was Augustine’s solution and his main contribution because, when he

asked the questions: What is evil? Does it have any being or not? Where did

it come from? HE observed that evil is something that always injures, and an

injury is deprivation of good. If there were no deprivation of good in the

thing being injured, then there would not be any injury. And, since all things

were made with goodness by God originally, then when things are evil, they are

deprived of the goodness that God gave them.

In other words, everything that God made is good, an

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