An Exposition of Augustine\u27s Theodicy: From Its Influences to Its Modern Application

This paper delineates the thrust of Augustine\u27s theodicy against the broader background of his Christian Neoplatonic outlook. We examine Augustine\u27s initial Manichean influences and see how these beliefs carry over to his mature thought, which is evident in the seventh book of the Confessions. After Augustine\u27s time with the Manicheans, we look at how he was so influenced by the books of the Platonists (libri platonicorum). Although Augustine\u27s position regarding the problem of evil shifts, his idea of the primacy of the soul is still evident in his thought process. To wit, Augustine posits that evil must be considered a privation of the Good, so much so as to reach the point of complete nonentity. Human beings\u27 ability to be corrupted by evils rests in their position as being created ex-nihilo by God. With this creation also comes an inherent mutability. Due to human mutability, Augustine believes that God is not responsible for such evil actions. This paper also contrasts this belief with modern empiricist David Hume\u27s idea regarding God\u27s responsibility for human actions. Hume argues that the volition of all human actions rests in God as Creator of the world. As creator, Hume claims that God places human beings in a position to act. If humans are predisposed to perform evil actions, they cannot be faulted. Augustine would counter that argument by claiming that evil is not a substance. Not being a substance, evil is there not ascribable to God. Ultimately, Augustine\u27s theodicy is based upon the goodness of God

A Review of John Rists\u27 Augustine on Free Will and Predestination

In this paper I seek to summarize and critique John Rist’s article “Augustine on Free Will and Predestination.” Rist treats Augustine with honesty. When someone is as prominent, loved, and recognized as Augustine, when someone has as much authority as he does, the temptation to manipulate his writings into saying things which agree with one’s own position is strong. Rist resists this temptation, even concluding that Augustine holds a position on free will and predestination which Rist finds highly objectionable. But in his objections to Augustine’s position, Rist does not do justice to the whole system of Augustine’s thought. In my critique I will focus on two points where Rist takes issue with Augustine: 1) Augustine’s lack of an account of how God acts justly in election and 2) the demeaning of man to the level of a “puppet.” I will attempt to demonstrate that Rist’s criticisms are accounted for by extending Augustine’s teachings of, regarding 1), causality and the will and, in regard to 2), the solidarity of humanity with Adam. The aim of this paper is not to prove that Augustine’s articulation of free will and God’s predestination is the correct one but only that his position can withstand the criticisms Rist brings against it

The British Church and the Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms to c.620 (Chapter Four of The Celtic and Roman Traditions: Conflict and Consensus in the Early Medieval Church)

Excerpt: At the same time that Columbanus was establishing his monasteries in Merovingian Gaul, Pope Gregory the Great began planning a mission to convert the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms located in present-day England. The pope wrote to leading Merovingians such as Brunhild asking for their support in this endeavor and to provide whatever aid was necessary for the missionaries. In 596, Augustine (597–604/10), future bishop of Canterbury, and his party departed Italy for the north, traveling through the Merovingian kingdoms to Kent where the papal mission established their headquarters at the old Roman town of Canterbury (map 4.1). In the first years of the seventh century, Augustine came into conflict with the British Church over their alternative practices, specifically baptism and the Celtic-84. Augustine also wanted the British bishops to submit to his authority and to assist in converting the Anglo-Saxons. However, the British churchmen refused to acknowledge Augustine’s jurisdiction or change their practices

Augustine’s Use of Neoplatonism in Confessions VII: A Response to Peter King

A modified version of Michael Gorman's comments on Peter King’s paper at the 2004 Henle Conference.  Above all, an account of Augustine’s purposes in discussing Neoplatonism in Confessions VII, showing why Augustine does not tell us certain things we wish he would. In my commentary I will address the following topics: (i) what it means to speak of the philosophically interesting points in Augustine; (ii) whether Confessions VII is really about the Trinity; (iii) Augustine‘s intentions in Confessions VII; (iv) King‘s hypostatic interpretation‖;(v) Christology

7. Jerusalem: St. Augustine

Perhaps no individual after Paul exercised an influence on t he history of Christianity comparable to that of Augustine (354- 430). Beyond a doubt the greatest of the Latin Church fathers, he lived during the years when the formative period of the Christian Church was drawing to its close. By the time of his death, the polity, the doctrine, and many of the practices which the Western Church was to carry into the Middle Ages were already clearly recognizable, if not finally set. It was the contribution of Augustine, during the last half of a long and eventful life, to sharpen, expound, and expand upon so many different aspects of the Christian faith and in such a convincing (though sometimes inconsistent) way that there was no significant restatement of Roman Catholic doctrine for more than eight hundred years after his death. When the early Protestants of the sixteenth century wished to return to what they held to be true Christianity, they did so through Augustine. [excerpt

The Just War Tradition and Natural Law

This Essay is divided into three parts. First, it briefly discusses Augustine on the notion of a naturalistic morality implanted in human minds and hearts. Second, it traces the ways in which such notions as human nature figure in Augustinian and post-Augustinian arguments concerning war and peace. Third, it takes the measure of our current international crises and challenges from the perspective of human dignity the naturalistic morality Augustine addresses when he insists that there is, in fact, a nature we share, trails in its wake far-reaching ethical complications

The Just War Tradition and Natural Law

This Essay is divided into three parts. First, it briefly discusses Augustine on the notion of a naturalistic morality implanted in human minds and hearts. Second, it traces the ways in which such notions as human nature figure in Augustinian and post-Augustinian arguments concerning war and peace. Third, it takes the measure of our current international crises and challenges from the perspective of human dignity the naturalistic morality Augustine addresses when he insists that there is, in fact, a nature we share, trails in its wake far-reaching ethical complications

What Does the Happy Life Require? Augustine on What the Summum Bonum Includes

Many critics of religion insist that believing in a future life makes us less able to value our present activities and distracts us from accomplishing good in this world. In Augustine's case, this gets things backwards. It is while Augustine seeks to achieve happiness in this life that he is detached from suffering and dismissive of the body. Once Augustine comes to believe happiness is only attainable once the whole city of God is triumphant, he is able to compassionately engage with present suffering and see material and social goods as part of our ultimate good

Augustinianisms and Thomisms (Chapter Nine of the Cambridge Companion to Political Theology)

Excerpt: The standard linage of Augustine and Aquinas that emerges in twentieth-century textbooks of political philosophy is that of two fundamentally opposed theological approaches to the political. Augustine, in one corner, is the clear-eyed realist, convinced that political society is fallen, mired in the consequences of original sin and the contingent necessity to restrain evil, vice, and sin. Aquinas, in the other corner, is the more cheerful Aristotelian, who emphasizes the inherent goodness and naturalness of political society and its beneficial purposes for human flourishing.\u27 These contrasting visions continue to animate diverse Christian understandings of the limits and possibilities of politics