Throughout the reading on Augustine of Hippo, I realized there was a common understanding of good and evil which I found intriguing. After describing his childhood experience when he steals pears from the pear tree near his vineyard, he claims that humans do evil things for the sole reason of sinning. I agree with this notion because I think everyone remembers a time where they knew where they were doing something wrong and yet continued to do it anyway. In Harrington, Augustine then goes on to say that he did not understand how God can be supremely good and yet have created evil things. He comes to the conclusion that wickedness “is not a substance but a perversity of the will turning away from you, God…toward lower things” (Harrington 95).
