Essay About Large Part And Augustines Approach

Beyond the Problem of Evil
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BEYOND THE PROBLEM OF EVIL
by Wayne Ferguson
NOTE TO THE READER: This paper is written with a view to
encouraging genuine dialogue between those who believe that the
fullest and richest experience of truth and life can be attained
only by pursuing God within the bounds prescribed by Christian
orthodoxy and those standing outside of orthodoxy, who in all
sincerity have concluded that the restrictions of orthodoxy are
opposed to the fullest possible experience of truth and life.
Endnotes are indicated by numbers in brackets, e.g., {1};
text intended to be in italics has been placed in brackets .
INTRODUCTION
The problem of evil is, in my opinion, the best point of
departure for a fruitful dialogue between Christianity,
traditionally conceived, and those strands of modern philosophy
which have been perceived–indeed, have sometimes perceived
themselves–as a threat to that tradition. As such, I will attempt
first, to outline the problem of evil in the starkest terms
possible, presenting Augustines approach to its solution followed
by a critical analysis; second, to present an alternative approach
to the questions which give rise to the problem–an approach
derived in large part from Spinoza and Nietzsche; and, third, to
show how this more philosophically acceptable alternative can be
expressed in the categories of faith, allowing us to reappropriate
the tradition .
PART ONE: Augustines Approach to the Problem of Evil
Simply put, the problem of evil resides in the apparently
unavoidable contradiction between the notion of God as omnipotent
and omnibenevolent, on the one hand, and the existence of evil
(natural and moral), on the other.{1} Indeed, granting that God is
all powerful, it would seem impossible for us to vouch for his
benevolence, considering our first-hand experience of evil in the
world. Likewise, if we grant from the outset that God is the
paradigm of goodness, then it would seem that we must modify our
conception of his power. However, Christian “orthodoxy” remains
unwilling to modify its conception of Gods goodness or his power–
thus, the persistence of the problem.
St. Augustine was fully aware of this problem and spent much–
perhaps most–of his philosophical energy attempting to come to
terms with it. In , he writes:
Those who ponder these matters are seemingly forced to
believe either that Divine Providence does not reach to
these outer limits of things or that surely all evils are
committed by the will of God. Both horns of this dilemma
are impious, but particularly the latter (1.1.1).
His approach to a solution to this problem is three-pronged:
1) he holds that evil is a privation and cannot be properly said to
exist at all; 2) he argues that the apparent imperfection of any
part of creation disappears in light of the perfection of the
whole; and 3) he argues that the origin of moral evil, together
with that suffering which is construed as punishment for sin, is to
be found in the free choice of the will of rational creatures.
As a Manachee, Augustine believed that both God and the
principle of evil were some sort of material substances, neither
deriving its existence from the other. Evil, although somehow
than God, was, nevertheless, infinite and presented a
real problem for God to overcome in the course of his cosmic
existence. He describes his motives for believing such things as
follows:
piety (however bizarre some of my beliefs were) forbade
me to believe that the good God had created an evil
nature ( 5.10.20).
Even after Augustine had abandoned these “bizarre beliefs” of the
Manachees and had, as a Christian, arrived at the notion of God as
an immutable, spiritual substance, the existence of evil still
troubled him for:
Although I affirmed and firmly held divine immunity from
pollution and change and the complete immutability of our
God, the true God . . . yet I had no clear and explicit
grasp of the cause of evil. Whatever it might be, I saw
it had to be investigated, if I were to avoid being