St. Augustine on the Problem of Evil

Enchiridion, 10-12

In his struggles with the problem of evil, Augustine argues first that the fact that there are things

of varying goodness makes for a greater goodness of things as a whole than if there weren't such

variety. And he further argues that evil is not something fully real but only something dependent

on that which is more real, as disease (which is an evil) can exist only in a body (which is a

good). Thus God, as the source of all that is, is not in contest with a positive being or an ultimate

reality which is evil and would be His counterpart. Though Augustine's ideas were bold and

daring, they troubled many later Christians who felt they were unable to reconcile them with the

existence of sin, Satan, and damnation. Yet variations on this theme continue to be popular: what

we perceive to be evil is, in some ultimate sense, good. (It should be noted that the classic

"problem of evil" exists only in those religions like Christianity, Judaism, and Islam in which

there is believed to be a single, good, almighty god, and is absent in other world religions.)

According to Augustine, what happens to vices when they are not residing in a human soul? Can

you find any flaws in his analogy of evil with disease? (Remember: Augustine could not have

known about germs and viruses!)

By the Trinity, (1) thus supremely and equally and unchangeably good, all things were created;

and these are not supremely equally and unchangeably good, but yet they are good, even taken

separately. Taken as a whole, however, they are very good, because their ensemble constitutes

the universe in all its wonderful order and beauty.

And in the universe, even that which is called evil, when it is regulated and put in its own place,

only enhances our admiration of the good; for we enjoy and value the good more when we

compare it with the evil. For the almighty God, who, as even the heathen acknowledge, has

supreme power over all things, being Himself supremely good, would never permit the existence

of anything evil among His works, if He were not so omnipotent and good that He can bring

good even out of evil. For what is that which we call evil but the absence of good? In the bodies

of animals, disease and wounds mean nothing but the absence of health; for when a cure is

effected, that does not mean that the evils which were present--namely, the diseases and wounds-

-go away from the body and dwell elsewhere: they altogether cease to exist; for the wound or

disease is not a substance, (2) but a defect in the fleshly substance--the flesh itself being a

substance, and therefore something good, of which those evils--that is, privations of the good

which we call health--are accidents. (3) Just in the same way, what are called vices in the soul

are nothing but privations of natural good. And when they are not transferred elsewhere: when

they cease to exist in the healthy soul, they cannot exist anywhere else.

Translated by Marcus Dods (1876).

(1) The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

(2) Substance" is a technical term, meaning that which endures through time even though it may

undergo certain changes of quality or of state. The substance is thus more real than are its

changeable features.

(3) "Accident," too, is a technical term, meaning not "happening by chance" but rather "those

qualities or states of a thing which might have been different than they are." Thus accidents can

only exist if there is something more real of which they can be the features.