1. Evil does not really exist…

Augustine thought that evil wasn’t anything at all – it was what we experience, when good aspects are lost. It is only because good exists, that there can be evil and suffering. Therefore he defined evil as the privation (loss) of good.

Think about pain- this is only the loss of the condition of health and harmony in one part of the body. The suffering of hunger, is only the privation of the good that is food. Sadness, is the being deprived of something, that brought joy. We only experience ‘evil’, because we recognize what good we have lost.

So evil and suffering are not the experience of evil as a thing in itself – but only of not having some good. If it was never possible to lose good, evil and suffering could not affect us. So suffering is a result of this world being a changeable, impermanent place. Remember that the world was created ex nihilo – for Augustine, this means that everything can always go back to this nothingness: only God’s love is creative and brings goodness into existence.

Human being create evil and suffering, when, affected by Original Sin, they act in ways that do not bring about goodness, but deprive either themselves or others of goodness – for example, anger deprives others of peace and friendship; greed and injustice deprives others of good things they also had a right to. This is like going backwards, to nothingness – evil.

  1. What does Augustine think that evil is? Explain the meaning of “privation” in your answer.
  2. Do you agree with him?
  3. What has “creation ex nihilo” got to do with it?
  4. Why does Augustine think that it is always possible to lose the good, and so to suffer?

** What other examples can you think of, where evil is just a privation of the good?

2. Original Sin explains why humans make wrong choices & see evil, where they shouldn’t

From his study of Genesis 1, Augustine taught that Original Sin has corrupted our human nature, so that our free will is more inclined towards making evil choices, towards sins such as greed, anger, lust, selfishness etc.

Even though the Bible says this happened because of Adam and Eve, Augustine taught that we are all guilty and affected by it – because we were all “in Adam” when he sinned, and we have all descended from his corrupted nature.

  1. What effect has Original Sin had on our human nature, according to Augustine?
  2. Why does he think this is our fault, not God’s?
  3. Do you agree with him? Why?

3. Contrast with Good

Augustine thought that evil helped people to appreciate the good things we have, for example, to appreciate health, when we are sick."..we enjoy and value the good more when we compare it with the evil"

4. The Principle of PlenitudeOriginal Sin makes us see everything from our perspective (“it’s all about me!) ” – but for God, the world as a whole is good. Just because some things don’t please us at a particular time (eg mosquitos while on holiday, or a flood after heavy rain), for God, everything has its place within Creation. So if we could see the bigger picture, even what we consider to be evil, would be seen to be good: “And in the universe, even that which is called evil, when it is regulated and put in itsown place, only enhances our admiration of the good”. This is called the Principle of Plenitude: all things are good when seen as part of the whole, even if not to us, at any particular time.

1. Explain Augustine’ view, with your own example of how evil can help us appreciate the good more.

2. What does the “Principle of Plenitude” say?

3. Do you agree that some of what we see as evil, is only because we are unable to see “the bigger picture”?

**Can you think of an example of how this might work?

5. God ALLOWS evil in order to bring GOOD out of it

Augustine certainly did not think that evil means that God is not powerful. On the contrary, he thought that evil can positively show God’s almighty power, because there is no evil, from which God cannot bring out some good. Augustine says “God would never permit the existence of anything evil, if He were not so omnipotent, that He can bring good, even out of evil."

He also thought that evil can make us better people, though not always – evil can make us arrive at much greater happiness, after we have overcome evil and suffering, than we could have done without it – greater compassion, patience, understanding, maturity, responsibility, appreciation.

  1. Why does Augustine disagree, with the Problem of Evil, that evil makes God look weak?
  2. What do you think about his view? Explain why you agree or disagree.
  3. Why does Augustine also think it is worth having evil?

**Do you agree with him, that it is worth having evil, if it does make mean that people find themselves facing challenges, which cause them to become much greater than they were before?