Augustine's Cogitation Of Evil

Improved Essays
In Saint Augustine Confessions, Augustine recounts not only the story of his life, but he also discusses religious and philosophical explications, as exemplified by his cogitation of evil. Specifically throughout Book VII, Augustine contemplates the origins of evil and the reasoning behind its existence in a world fashioned by an omnipotent, virtuous God. Through the logic expressing that everything generated by God is good and thus, God did not create evil, Augustine defines evil as the depravity of goodness that recurrently befalls mankind as a consequence of man’s poor application of free will. Perhaps the basis of his argument is best illustrated by his question, “Where then does it [evil] come from since the good God made everything good

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Bibl 104 Research Paper

    • 1181 Words
    • 5 Pages

    The purpose of this philosophical research paper is to attempt to develop an understanding on the concept of suffering while investigating the problem of evil from a theological perspective using scriptural references from the Holy Bible. Evil is the Absence of Good The Bible teaches that God is a powerful and almighty God. Many people wonder why there is so much pain, suffering, and corruption in the world if there is a presumably good God overseeing it. According to the Bible, God could not possibly cause evil since he is a righteous God.…

    • 1181 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    First, Augustine draws a parallel between himself and a passage from the Old Testament in the chapter “Pear Theft”, in which Augustine is persuaded by his friends to steal pears from a local tree. The parallel between Augustine’s retelling and the story of Adam and Eve from the book of Genesis is both evident and purposeful. Adam is persuaded into taking the forbidden apple from Eve, leading to the eventual banishment from the Garden of Eden while Augustine is peer-pressured into stealing pears which signals his metaphorical banishment from enlightenment and acceptance of…

    • 1250 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    What makes the good pure and evil bad? You are just about to find that out. We shall find the basis supporting this argument on the researches of three scholars who conducted an in-depth analysis on the subject. Each of these authors has their different contributions which must be not be ignored, to understand the existence of man in the universe, and things that control him. We shall look at the works of three researchers, who are Bertrand Russell, in his contributions on why I am Not a Christian, Mere Christianity by C.S Lewis, and finally, The Age of A reason.…

    • 1086 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    As humans, we make choices every single day from the moment we wake up each morning. Some of these choices do not seem to affect our lives with much significance, such as what we choose to eat for breakfast. On the other hand, some may change our lives forever, like deciding where to attend college. The choices we make lead to the experiences we have. The texts of Antigone, Saint Augustine: Of Choice and Free Will and Into the Wild contain instances of decisions that led to experiences, which result in the realization of what is deemed right and good in life.…

    • 1669 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    1. Augustine’s theory is based on the belief that there are two parallel cities coexisting on earth, Civitas Dei and Civitas Terrena. Both cities are connected with similarities, but at the same time separate by powerful differences. First, Civitas Dei was created when God created the universe, it is what Augustine’s idea of “heaven.” In this city, only those who have been granted efficacious grace and are motivated by an unselfish love of God (caritas) were elected.…

    • 419 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Evil is a complex issue within the Catholic faith. It is difficult to put a definition to what evilness is because it is not something that can physically be touched or seen. Philosophers such as, St. Augustine and Boethius, have proposed ideas that transform the way Catholics view evil, and help to give a better understanding of faith and God. These two philosophers have expressed their opinions on this very controversial topic in depth in Augustine’s Confessions and again in the Consolation of Philosophy by Boethius. The philosophers shared certain ideas, but have come to them each in different ways.…

    • 1299 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Manifestation Of Evil

    • 1521 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Through analysis of Johnathan Edwards’ “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”, Thomas Paine’s “Common Sense”, and Washington Irving’s “Adventures of a German Student”, evil will be defined, examined and used to exemplify evil’s indwelling through early American literature. From the very beginning of American civilization from…

    • 1521 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Saint Augustine’s peers are the primary reason for his misbehavior. If he had been surrounded by peers that followed rules and judged one another not on the things they have done wrong but the good things they have done, then he might not have performed as many sinful acts. Saint Augustine would still be motivated to do them by other internal and external factors, but without that one large external factor might not have performed them, or as many of them. He states that he would not…

    • 467 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Augustine And Evil

    • 1966 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Augustine (AD 354-430) who formed the concept of evil as ‘Privatio Boni’ . This consisted of evil existing not as an entity or force in itself but as a privation of good. He saw the whole of God’s creation as good but as it lacks the immutability or permanence of God it is capable of being corrupted. Augustine defined evil as a “loss of measure, order and form” or simply as an absence of good. This description does fit when considered in relation to natural evil, for example that a hurricane which destroys the homes of hundreds of people is a loss of order in the natural world.…

    • 1966 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    It is evident that Augustine and Dante are much like many authors as they too explore spirituality in their writings. Augustine’s book Confessions and Dante’s Purgatorio both see humans as pilgrims on a journey that either brings them to God or away from God. These books have challenged readers, like myself, as they draw insight from them to apply to their own spiritual journey. In these books there are many themes that apply to Augustine and Dante’s spiritual journey.…

    • 1207 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Decent Essays

    In Confessions we see how was Augustine’s life in the religious development and how he eventually accepted Christianity. A sin is something bad that goes against the rules. It is said that as soon as you are born, you are already capable of sin. Agustine thought of this concept as a particular state of motivation. “Now I want to call to mind the foul deeds I committed, those sins of the flesh that corrupted my soul, not in order to love them, but to love you, my God” (pg. 33).…

    • 193 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The books are about different times in his life from childhood to the death of his mother when he was thirty-three. In many ways Augustine see’s God working in ways he cannot understand and I will be writing about those ways using several different specific examples from The Confessions. To begin, the first example of when Augustine didn’t understand the work of God was during his boyhood. In this passage when Augustine says “O God, my God what emptiness and mockeries I now experience… I went to school to learn; but if I proved idle in learning, I was soundly beaten.”…

    • 716 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Are humans good or bad? This is a question that many have asked throughout humanity. For thousands of years, several philosophers have debated about whether human nature is good or is human nature bad. I believe that no human is perfect and we all have our faults we all make mistakes. I don’t think that we are necessarily good or bad, I believe that we have the ability to be both good and bad.…

    • 1196 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    He made into the conclusion that every man that lives well possesses God within them. But according to Augustine, man always has God within us. A person who lives well have God favourably inclined within us, and if a man lives in evil, he did not incline God favourably. God can be also the ultimate end, in which through love, we can reach him and become one of him, but, we cannot surpass him by any means of goodness since he is the ultimate good. We are formed from goodness and wants our happiness be far better as we accomplish it.…

    • 2087 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Every individual’s worldview is shaped by their experiences and beliefs; therefore, everyone is different. Even though Plato and Augustine were both philosophers, their worldviews differed greatly. Plato spent his life in Athens as an influential leader in both politics and religion. Since Socrates was his mentor, the majority of what Plato taught was centered on Socrates’ philosophy. Apart from being well-known as a student of Socrates, Plato was also known as an excellent writer of philosophical dialogues.…

    • 1091 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays