A Critique Of Saint Augustine’s Theodicy

A Critique Of Saint Augustine’s Theodicy 

Chapter One

Introduction

1.1 Background of the Study

People, nation, or epoch in human history they do not encounter the problem of evil, Evil has been a problem of all ages, from the cradle of humanity to our contemporary world. It has threatened man’s existence in its perpetuity. No wonder Jude Maduka in his book The Paradox of Evil observed “… that it is a physical, moral, particular and a universal problem. Evil is the opposite of good. It is a deprivation which no sane human being wants. It has raised distressing questions among all peoples (x). The problem of evil or the reality of the existence of evil has been a multifaceted philosophical cum religious issue. It is so because, it is crystal clear that the existence of evil in the world has been an issue of great puzzle for so many decades among scholars of theology and philosophy such that with the efforts made so far by these scholars, one cannot vividly comprehend or reconcile why there is evil in the world, since God who is the perfect being and initiator is good in Himself.

So, it was against this melieu that Augustine tried to say his own mind as he perceives evil in a world created by a perfect God, while viewing evil as a privation of good. Thus, the question remains, where comes evil, who is responsible for evil? Augustine is a major voice in this bearing, though he finally came to a sound conclusion that God would never permit any evil to exist in His world, if He were not powerful enough and good enough to make good come out of it.

Augustine also sees as an illusion, a falsehood; it does exist but its tenets and acts are false in nature. Citing his encounter with the Manichean sect, which really showed him that evil exists, as he explores their teaching, belief and doctrine which poses a dualistic principle of good and evil with equal value, equal power, or equivalent as the governors of the universe. In his book The Confession, Augustine posits:-

And thus I fell in with men called Manicheans who were bloated with pride, exceedingly carnal and great talkers. In their mouths were the snares of Satan and a birdline made up of a mixture of the syllables of your name, and that of our Lord Jesus Christ and of the Paracicte, the Holy Spirit, our comforter. All these names were always in their mouths, but only as far as the sound and the noise of the tongue, their hearts being void of all that is true (69).

The hardships Augustine experienced as a youth and the immoral life which led to his fathering a child (Adeodatius) made him to look into the notion of evil. It is from all these that he decided to account for evil in the world from a philosophic point of view.

This problem revolves around God who is said to be the highest good, the Summum Bonum, Onmiscient, All-powerful, Almighty and the creator of all that exists- The problem of evil has diverged and converged philosophers and theologians into two different camps (theists and atheists). This problem, however, bothers Christians most because in their faith, God is the highest Good and creator of all that exists. St. Augustine was one of the Christian thinkers who fought against the notion that God is the creator of both good and evil. To explain the source of evil and who created it, Augustine joined the Manicheans who postulated two principles namely; the principle of good (ormuzd) and the principle of evil (Ahriman). For him, the Manichean’s explanation was not satisfactory. He had read the works of Plotinus who held that evil is not a positive theory, it is not something positive but simply the negation of being, or in other words, the absence of being, the lack of being.

However, Plotinus later affirmed, as captured in Joseph Omeregbe’s Philosophy of Religion as the “matter was evil” (131). Augustine disagreed with him on this because God being the creator of all that is, presupposes the fact that matter being one of the things created by God is also good. Should this be negated, then God being the creator of all that is, becomes a contradiction to His nature. This made St. Augustine to vehemently subscribe to the view that all that is, is good. Evil exist not on its own, but on a substance (good). It is a parasitic to good.

Certainly, there are so many possible questions today that still propel atheists to doubt the view of St. Augustine. How can God who created everything not be able to remove this impending evil in the world? Does it mean too that the plague of His children does not disturb Him, a good God? These questions and many more cannot in any way be reconciled with God who is said to be infinity, All-powerful and the creator of all that is. For the atheists, if God exist, He is not good and if He is the creator of all that is, He created evil too. If evil is as a result of choice-making, can’t He change it?

St. Augustine then, being faced with much of the above questions set out prove, as Egburgu 135 corroborate, that God is good and created only good things, evil did not exist, if it did, it would have been good. Evil is only a privation of the good. This privation of the good in creatures, created good, was brought about by their evil choice as free creatures. Though God foresaw this ‘misfortune’, he allowed it, He is ‘capable’ of turning all into good.

These and many other related things are what we intend to accomplish in this work, subscribing to the view that evil is not God-made but man-made, it is a negation, a privation and has no fundamentum in re-foundation in reality.

1.2 Statement of the Problem

Saint Augustine, like some philosophers and theologians has made efforts to explain nay the justification for the reason for the presence of the presence of evil in our world. Yet this theory has been criticized by other thinkers alike, which also in the crux of this work. In mentioning and explaining the criticisms that has become the problem of St. Augustine Theodicy.

According to Augustine, time was created by God. But he stresses that this does not mean that it was created at any time. He claims that to say time was created at a certain time, would be to contradict oneself. For then there would have to be a time before the creation of all time, which would be absurd. Consequently, he argues that time could not have been made in time anymore than heaven and earths were, or could have been, made in heaven and earth. He never doubts that time was made, or that this belief of his is an intelligible one.

For Augustine, accordingly, there is noting temporally prior to the creation of time. He maintains, however, that eternity, or timelessness, is non-temporally, or logically, prior to the existence of time. God exists in such eternity, and His Word is coeternal with Him. It is with this Word-which was not spoken in time that God created heaven and earth and time. God’s Word, then, is not like the words of man: it never began or ended; or did it ever sound and passes away. Rather, it abides forever in utter silence and was spoken all.

1.3 Aim and Objectives of the Study

The aim is to adumbrate and explore the crux of St. Augustine’s Theodicy of the problem of good and evil.

The objectives of this work are the;

Highlight the attractions of Saint Augustine’s theodicy.

Examine Saint Augustine’s theodicy side-by-side with other schools and philosopher’s views.

Show the relevance of Saint Augustine’s theodicy in an attempt to justify the problem of evil in the world.

Give a critical analysis of Saint Augustine’s theodicy

1.4 Scope of the Study

In St. Augustine’s Theodicy, this work takes a wider tour from the ancient period of philosophy down to the contemporary period. It attempts to render an exhaustive explanation of St. Augustine’s theodicy in the bid to map out the concrete and better paths to follow in trying to justify the presence of evil in the world, taking cognizance of the fact that many people are unable to reconcile the goodness of God with evil in the universe. This research work takes into consideration other scholar’s thoughts regarding evil. Nonetheless, the project is open-ended as room for further research and constructive criticisms given

1.5 Method of the Study

In our academic discourse, method becomes very necessary as a procedure that guides us towards a purposeful realization of the goal of our research. As a philosophical work, the method of research used in this work includes expository, analytic, thematic, critical evaluation and recommendation.

1.6 Significance of the Study

The presence of evil in the universe is questionable after having known that God, the creator of the universe is infinitely good, thus He cannot be the source of evil. The question of whether evil is man-made or God-made has agitated the minds of great thinkers, right from the ancient period to the contemporary era. Thus, this problem is not only perennial but also topical in the philosophical discourse. This work brings into limelight such discourse. For example, for Christians, evil is man-made and not God made. Thus, evil resulted from the freedom which comes with it, a responsibility given to human being at creation. In this view, it is the wrong choice of human being that gives rise to evil, hence, God is not to be blamed, but man.

However, atheists hold that the creator of the good is also the creator of the evil, that evil is His product. ‘God would have made the world in such a way that evil will be absent, but He willingly let the loophole for evil (Ukaegbu, 2)’. For atheists, God created evil and not man. They argue too that if evil is man-made because of man’s misuse of the freedom, it indicates that evil was created with freedom. As such, it is God-made. This work reveals that this problem of evil and its origin cannot be solved by reduction, by a priori reasoning. We are obliged to return to a posteriori reasoning which is founded on the principle of causality.

1.7 Definition of Terms

Theodicy: Theodicy is a term that Gothfried Leibniz coined from the Greek words; “theos” meaning “God” and “duce” which means “righteous”. A theodicy is an attempt to justify or defend God in the face of evil by answering the following problem, which in its most basic form involves these assumptions:-

God is all good and all powerful (and, therefore, all knowing)

The universe/creation was made by God and/or exist in a contingent relationship to God.

Evil exists in the world, why?

Theodicy is the religious response to the problem of pain arid suffering. It has been defined by John Hick in his book, The Problem of Evil as “an attempt to reconcile the unlimited goodness of an all-powerful God with the reality of evil” (136). In such a view, the function of the theodicist is to show that these attributes of the Divine are consistent with the reality and experience of evil. In this regard, theodicy is usually considered a defensive affair; the role of the theodicist is to defend religious beliefs against those who argue they are contradictory or implausible in the face of evil.

Furthermore, the online Wikipedia defines theodicy as the “vindication of God. It is to answer the question of why a good God permits the manifestation of evil, thus resolving the issue of the problem of evil” (online. The theodicist usually responds to attacks pertaining to evil that are raised against religious beliefs by the atheologian or religious sceptic. This fact about theodicy has led many to perceive theodicy as an exclusively defensive activity.

Evil: In his The Paradox of Evil, Maduka (4) stated that “the term “evil’ is like a chameleon, that means different things to different people. To some, it means one thing, while to others it means another, depending on how it is perceived. Accordingly, the New Lexicon Webster‘s Dictionary defines evil as,

Wicked, arising from a caused or supposed wickedness. It is that which indicates wickedness, foul, disgusting, disastrous, ill-omened, and what is morally wrong…. It is what hinders the realization of the good…. It is what is materially, socially, religiously very harmful… (3).

It can be inferred from the above definition that evil is contrasted with good. It is the negation of good. Nwabueze underscores this point in Maduka’s book thus;

We can say that evil is opposed to good, which is the integrity of being or perfection of being in the entire orders-material, moral or spiritual. Evil, we can sometimes concretize in a subject that is the subject affected (4).

However, the nature and meaning of evil is immensely difficult. Benigus commentary on the failure of many philosophers to give us plausible answer on the nature of evil manifestly averred;

Some systems of philosophy show that their inadequacy by their utter failure to give even a partially satisfactory answer to this questions. Pantheis, identifying God and the world, can give no explanation of evil that does not amount to a denial of the fundamental principle of pantheism. The same thing is true of amanationism which records everything in the world as the necessary result of the nature of God. Many modern absolutists have tried to get out this impasse by denying that evil is evil (8).

Jacques Maritain contemplating on the meaning of evil brilliantly says “…it is a nothingness which corrodes being. When we reason in the line of evil, we reason in the line of non-being, for evil is in no wise being; evil is only a vacuum or a lack of being; nothingness and a privation” (3). Evil is that which impedes that achievement of goals, ideals, happiness and general well-being of man. It is a privation because of the fact that certain being lacks a good it requires in order to enjoy the integrity and perfection of its nature.

KINDS OF EVIL

Metaphysical Evil

Metaphysical evil refers to “the finitude, contingency and hence, imperfection of created things (Maduke, 6). Man as a creature has necessity and some inherent limitations. These limitations can be observed in the fact that man is only a man and not God. Hence, he is naturally compelled to be at one place at a given time. He is restricted to be either a man or a woman and cannot be both (though exceptionally abnormal cases prove the existence of human hermaphrodites). Man is limited to two legs without addition of wings. All the difference in the nature of being is all that brought about the question of metaphysical evil. Therefore, the metaphysical evil is considered more of a lack than evil, on this Paul Sivek opines;

It (metaphysical evil) only helps to complicate the problem of evil sufficiently compels in itself. It does this principally by creating many annoying misunderstandings. To have two and not four eyes is certainly a limitation of human beings. But who has thought of complaining of that? Only a mad man (16).

Wilhelm Leibniz who championed the course of metaphysical evil has a different view. In his view, the mere finitude of created beings is an evil because it implies lack of some perfection. On this, Samuel Stumpf captured Leibniz thus; “the source of evil is not God, but rather the very nature of things God creates. For as these things are finite or limited, they are imperfect (258).

Metaphysical evil is counted as evil due to the classical concept of evil as essentially a privation or lack. But in the strictest sense, evil is a privation of what is due to be there but is not, and in that sense, metaphysical evil is again out of the realm of evil since there is no evidence to prove that is due for man to become God, or to fly like a bird. Because of these facts, metaphysical evil has been regarded by many groups of thinkers as ‘no evil’ or ‘serious evil’. It is merely the inevitable consequence of the world as a contingent reality.

Physical Evil

Physical evil is nothing but the physical sensation of pain and the mental anguish of suffering. It eventuates in the cause of nature without man’s intervention. Some call it “natural evil”. It includes such catastrophe and havocs caused by earthquakes, plague, flood, volcanic eruption, hurricanes, accident, these and the likes are considered as physical evil, not simply because they occur but because of the fact that when man is affected by them, they cause him some pain, suffering, illness, unhappiness and what have you. It also involves diseases in the universe, for instance leprosy, cancer, and poliomyelitis. It equally involves natural disaster like tornado, earthquake. Corroborating this, C. Journet in his book, The Meaning of Evil said that metaphysical evil

… is the evil that originates independently of human action, in disease bacilli, earthquakes, storms, and drought tornados. Natural (physical) evil consists in unwelcome experiences brought upon sentist creatures, human or sub-human by causes other man himself (18-19).

Physical evil occurs by the nature of the way things are, unwilled and uninfluenced by man.

Moral Evil

Moral evil consists of the evil which man inflicts on his fellow human being. This simply mans “human wickedness”. It includes such instances of man’s inhumanity to man, made manifest in mental and physical torture of another, plunder war, killing of fellow human being and injustice. Moral evil is caused by human beings. Theologians can it “sin” (Aquinas, 14). It therefore consists, especially, in the wrong choices man makes out of his given free will. St. Thomas Aquinas lend his voice here that the will is the cause of moral evil. For hum, “the root and organ of moral evil is to be sought in the act of the will” (20).

Pantaloon Ireogbu in his Kpim of Predicaments conceives moral evil as consisting of different spices. He articulates:

…that moral evil include social evil arising from bad social conditions of peoples in the society; political evils that turn politics into an instrument of persecution, cheat, injustice and maltreatments instead of help … economic evil that is the unjust distribution of common resources as well as the manipulation of religion to egoistic advantage (religious evil) (33-40).

Therefore, all the species of moral evil above have their traces from man’s free will. A moral evil consist essentially in the disordered will of man.