Evil as Privation. Augustine ( ) Augustine: Evil as Privation

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1 Augustine: Evil as Privation Evil as Privation Augustine ( ) Augustine was born in a Roman province on the north coast of Africa in 354 to a pagan father and Christian mother. His mother, Monica, wielded a great deal of influence over him. Although he did not particularly excel at his early studies, he eventually became an expert in rhetoric when he moved to Carthage in 370. Carthage was a city of loose morals and Augustine gradually fell away from Christianity. He took a mistress and she bore him a son during his second year in Carthage. During this time, Augustine rejected Christian morals and doctrines. What particularly troubled him was the inability of Christianity to explain how a good God could allow so much evil in the world. This problem led him to embrace the materialistic ideas of Manichaeism. This philosophy holds that the world is dominated by two eternal and opposed forces, good and evil, light and darkness. In 383, Augustine traveled to Rome, where he opened his own school of rhetoric. Because he had so much trouble getting his students to pay their tuition, he eventually moved to Milan. This move proved to be a life changing event for Augustine for it was here that he was introduced to Platonic philosophy which spoke of a spiritual and transcendent conception of God, and the view that evil was a privation of goodness. This discovery, along with the influence of Ambrose, who was the bishop of Milan, and Augustine s own study of the New Testament, led to his conversion to Christianity in the summer of 386. After his baptism by Ambrose in the autumn of 388, Augustine went back to Africa where his was ordained as a priest by the Bishop of Hippo. In 396, Augustine became the Bishop of Hippo. Augustine wrote extensively and is credited with three of the most important theological and philosophical works ever written: The Confessions (the world s first autobiography), the City of God (the first philosophy of history), and On the Trinity. 153

2 Part III. The Problem of Evil Vocabulary: Trinity: Immutable: Omnipotent: Privation: Accident: Augment: the Godhead consisting of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit unchangeable all-powerful diminishment of something; a reduction in value has no independent and self-sufficient existence, but exists only in another being, a substance or another accident. Accidents may change, disappear or be added, while substance remains the same to make greater Concepts: The Trinity: Omnipotent: Evil: Free Will: Questions: 1. How does Augustine define evil? 2. Why is evil an accident? 3. Why can t something be totally evil? 4. Where does evil originate? 5. What role does our free will play in our evil actions? 154

3 Augustine: Evil as Privation Enchiridion Chapter 3:10 God Created All Things Good By this Trinity, supremely and equally and immutably good, were all things created. But they were not created supremely, equally, nor immutably good. Still, each single created thing is good, and taken as a whole they are very good, because together they constitute a universe of admirable beauty. Chapter 3:11 Evil Is The Privation Of Good In this universe, even what is called evil, when it is rightly ordered and kept in its place, commends the good more eminently, since good things yield greater pleasure and praise when compared to the bad things. For the Omnipotent God, whom even the heathen acknowledge as the Supreme Power over all, would not allow any evil in his works, unless in his omnipotence and goodness, as the Supreme Good, he is able to bring forth good out of evil. What, after all, is anything we call evil except the privation of good? In animal bodies, for instance, sickness and wounds are nothing but the privation of health. When a cure is effected, the evils which were present (i.e., the sickness and the wounds) do not retreat and go elsewhere. Rather, they simply do not exist any more. For such evil is not a substance; the wound or the disease is a defect of the bodily substance which, as a substance, is good. Evil, then, is an accident, i.e., a privation of that good which is called health. Thus, whatever defects there are in a soul are privations of a natural good. When a cure takes place, they are not transferred elsewhere but, since they are no longer present in the state of health, they no longer exist at all. Chapter 4:12 All Beings Were Made Good, But Not Being Made Perfectly Good, Are Liable To Corruption All of nature, therefore, is good, since the Creator of all nature is supremely good. But nature is not supremely and immutably good as is the Creator of it. Thus the good in created things can be diminished and augmented. For good to be diminished is evil; still, however much it is diminished, something must remain of its original nature as long as it exists at all. For no matter what kind or however insignificant a thing may be, the good which is its nature cannot be destroyed without the thing itself being destroyed. 155

4 Part III. The Problem of Evil There is good reason, therefore, to praise an uncorrupted thing, and if it were indeed an incorruptible thing which could not be destroyed, it would doubtless be all the more worthy of praise. When, however, a thing is corrupted, its corruption is an evil because it is, by just so much, a privation of the good. Where there is no privation of the good, there is no evil. Where there is evil, there is a corresponding diminution of the good. As long, then, as a thing is being corrupted, there is good in it of which it is being deprived; and in this process, if something of its being remains that cannot be further corrupted, this will then be an incorruptible entity, and to this great good it will have come through the process of corruption. But even if the corruption is not arrested, it still does not cease having some good of which it cannot be further deprived. If, however, the corruption comes to be total and entire, there is no good left either, because it is no longer an entity at all. Wherefore corruption cannot consume the good without also consuming the thing itself. Every actual entity is therefore good; a greater good if it cannot be corrupted, a lesser good if it can be. Yet only the foolish and unknowing can deny that it is still good even when corrupted. Whenever a thing is consumed by corruption, not even the corruption remains, for it is nothing in itself, having no subsistent being in which to exist. Chapter 4:13 There Can Be No Evil Where There Is No Good From this it follows that there is nothing to be called evil if there is nothing good. A good that wholly lacks an evil aspect is entirely good. Where there is some evil in a thing, its good is defective or deflectable. Thus there can be no evil where there is no good. This leads us to a surprising conclusion: that, since every being, in so far as it is a being, is good, if we then say that a defective thing is bad, it would seem to mean that we are saying that what is evil is good, that only what is good is ever evil and that there is no evil apart from something good. This is because every actual entity is good. Nothing evil exists in itself, but only as an evil aspect of some actual entity. Therefore, there can be nothing evil except something good. Absurd as this sounds, nevertheless the logical connections of the argument compel us to it as inevitable. At the same time, we must take warning lest we incur the prophetic judgment which reads: Woe to those who call evil good and good evil: who call dark- 156

5 Augustine: Evil as Privation ness light and light darkness; who call the bitter sweet and the sweet bitter. Moreover the Lord himself said: An evil man brings forth evil out of the evil treasure of his heart. What, then, is an evil man but an evil entity, since man is an entity? Now, if a man is something good because he is an entity, what, then, is a bad man except an evil good? When, however, we distinguish between these two concepts, we find that the bad man is not bad because he is a man, nor is he good because he is wicked. Rather, he is a good entity in so far as he is a man, evil in so far as he is wicked. Therefore, if anyone says that simply to be a man is evil, or that to be a wicked man is good, he rightly falls under the prophetic judgment: Woe to him who calls evil good and good evil. For this amounts to finding fault with God s work, because man is an entity of God s creation. It also means that we are praising the defects in this particular man because he is a wicked person. Thus, every entity, even if it is a defective one, in so far as it is an entity, is good. In so far as it is defective, it is evil. On Free Choice of the Will Because the will is moved when it turns from an immutable good to a changeable one, you may perhaps ask how this movement arises. For the movement itself is certainly evil, although the free will must be numbered among the goods, because with it no one can live rightly. Even if this movement, the turning of the will from the Lord God, is with without a doubt a sin, we cannot say that God is the cause of the sin. This movement will not be from God, but what, then, is its origin? If I should answer your question by saying that I do not know, you would perhaps be disappointed; yet that would be the truth, for that which is nothing cannot be known. Only hold to your faith, since no good thing comes to your perception, understanding, or thought which is not from God. Nothing of any kind can be discovered which is not from God. Wherever you see measure, number, and order, you cannot hesitate to attribute all these to God, their Maker. When you remove measure, number, and order, nothing at all remains. Even if the beginning of some form were to remain, where you do not find order or measure or number (since wherever these exist, form is complete), you must remove even that very beginning of form which seems to be the artisan s raw material. If the completion of form is a good, there is some good even in the rudimentary beginning of form. Thus, if all good is completely removed, no vestige persists; indeed, 157

6 Part III. The Problem of Evil nothing remains. Every good is from God. There is nothing of any kind that is not from God. Therefore, since the movement of turning away from good, which we admit to be sin, is a defective movement and since, moreover, every defect comes from nothing, see where this movement belongs: you may be sure that it does not belong to God. Yet since this defect is voluntary, it lies within our power. You must not be willing to fear this defect, for if you do not desire it, it will not exist. What greater security can there be than to live a life where what you do not will cannot happen to you? Since a man cannot rise of his own will as he fell by his own will, let us hold with firm faith the right hand of God, Jesus Christ our Lord, which is stretched out to us. Let us wait for Him with steadfast hope; let us love Him with burning love. From Augustine, Enchiridion and On Free Choice of the Will, trans. J.F. Shaw,

Evil as a Privation of Good

Evil as a Privation of Good by Augustine of Hippo translated by Albert C. Outler (1955) from Confessions, Book 7, Chapters 11-13 (~400 AD) CHAPTER XI And I viewed all the other things that are beneath