2. St. Augustine
• A theist has to justify the ways of God to man.
• God is Omnipotent, benevolent and Good.
• Than how do you explain evil?
• Evil is a fact of life. ( That is why you study
Law)
• One of the purpose of state is punishment to
wrong doers.
3. Contd.
• Physical evil can be explained by the theory of
Seminal Good.
• The whole universe has been created that a good
man may emerge by wrestling with the presence
of physical evil.
• All great man are great solely because they took
on evil.
• Ex. M. K. Gandhi was an ordinary lawyer, shy,
lacking confidence, till he decided to fight for
truth.
4. Contd.
• And that fight changed his battlefield from the
comforts of Court room , to emancipation of 400
Million Indians.
• Without the Physical evil of British empire M.K.
Gandhi would never have become the Mahatma.
• Physical evil could be understood but what about
Moral evil?
• Why people lie, cheat ?
• Why can’t they be honest, helpful, disciplined.
5. Contd.
• St. Augustine was a great Christian Saint. Born in Africa,
Son of a mid level official of the Roman empire.
• He has three views about evil.
• A) Evil is necessary for the advancement of greater
good. In the same manner the shadow of moon
enhances its beauty.
• B) Evil is not a positive but privative good. ex. Simple
deficiency of goodness.
• C) Not God but man is responsible for his moral fall.
•
6. Contd.
• Augustine was a Platonist. ( Follower of Plato)
• Yet he could not understand the matter as the
reason for evil.
• Matter is something which predates God?
• Matter was always their And God simply shaped
it into this world. ( Platonic View)
• God is omnipotent (All powerful)
• Because matter is also created by God, Hence
God is indirectly responsible for evil.
7. Contd.
• How to explain evil?
• Evil is not Good but it is good that there is evil.
• What appears as evil is not good but it is good
that there is evil!!
• Why?
• Because it only enhances the excellence of
Good.
8. Moral Evil
• The first man called Adam was given free will.
• Free will is Man’s capacity to take and act on his
decisions.
• He misused free will by his disobedience.
• He ate the forbidden fruit.
• He became a fallen man.
• A fallen man can produce only a fallen thing.
• All the descendents of Adam have become fallen
disobedient persons.
9. Contd.
• They Love the world.
• They have lost free will.
• Hence for the sin of one man all have sinned.
• This is known as the doctrine of original sin.
• We have stopped listening to God.
• All have earned eternal hell fire.
• A sinner can do no real good for real good
means free act.
10. Contd.
• He restricts the free will to only one man, and
denies this to n his all subsequent human
beings.
• Here comes GOD.
• He by his grace can redeem some man.
• He turns some man towards himself.
• It is God’s doing and his doing alone.
• Man can not earn his God ward tendency.
11. Contd.
• God’s grace can not be earned.
• No person can question his grace.
• For individual is absolutely corrupt and
deserves no salvation but ultimate
condemnation.
• But how do we know a particular individual is
saved by God.
• By Baptism, Sacrament, Fasting and prayer.
12. Contd.
• Anslem a follower of Augustine accepted the
priority of faith over reason.
• His slogan which was Augustinian was “ Let me
believe that I may understand”.
There is an idea of absolutely perfect being.
i.e. idea of God than whom none greater can be
thought.
Absolute perfection is necessarily an idea of an
Existent being.
13. Contd.
• When a Worshipper worships a deity, than his
deity is considered by him to be highest, most
perfect and the most real.
