Augustine’s Theodicy

Theos= God

Dikaios= justification

Theodicy= justification of God even with evil in the world

Interprets the genesis story literally

Hierarchy of Being

God is being itself (supreme being). All created things reflect greater or lesser being
“since god is supreme being…it follows that he gave ‘being’ to all that he created out of nothing. To some things he gave more of being and to others less. This created a hierarchy”

original rejection of god by rebellious angels who ‘fell' (moral evil) or turned away from god (natural evil)
humans created in Gods image (Gen 1:27) but given freewill
evil was let into the world through the misuse of free choice of Adam and Eve who ate the fruit of knowledge of good and evil.
Adam and Eve corrupted and destroyed God’s natural perfect order creating disharmony and resulting in natural evil
God didn’t created evil so it is not his fault- it was simply humans exercising their freewill

“All evil is either sin or punishment for sin”

Therefore, god is not responsible for moral evil as it through free choice of humans/angels.

God is also not responsible for natural evil as this is a result of the corruption of his perfect created world.

Thus, God is not responsible for intervening and correcting is.

God created everything in creation perfect
Did not create evil
Evil comes from the absence of good
Evil is a privation
This means that god cannot be blamed for evil as evil is not a substance, it is an absence of good
- Just as darkness id an absence of light. Darkness isn’t a thing but is just where there is no light, you cannot point to the source of darkness.

it is more valuable having humans with the gift of freewill rather than just being obedient followers

- this world is soul deciding.

Evidential evil in the world

Moral evil = Florida mass shooting 2018

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