St Augustine and Privatisation Flashcards
What is a theodicy?
Justification of the existence of God
What does Augustine believe about privatisation?
That free will is responsible for evil not God, therefore evil exists because of us. We misused our free will creating the absence of Good which is Evil. Evil is the absence of Good like dark is the absence of light.
How does this relate to Mackies inconsistent triad?
Removes evil as a point as it doesn’t exist (it’s only a privatisation of good). Therefore God can still be all loving and all powerful.
What type of world did God originally make? What did it become?
A perfect one based upon Gods perfect self so without evil.
It became not a world of Gods making but one of our choosing with moral and natural evil.
How was Gods world destroyed?
Through the Original sin of Adam and Eve made because of their own free will. They destroyed the state of perfection because of the free will God bestowed upon them and created an ‘absence of good’ within themselves.
Why are humans still blamed for the original sin?
We are all descended from Adam and were ‘seminally present’ at the fall so all share his guilt and deserve punishment. We experience the punishment through moral (free will) and natural evil (absence of good from corrupting the created order).
Why does Augustine argue god made this world despite him knowing the suffering caused?
He believed “God judged it better to bring good out of evil than not to permit any evil to exist”. This is the happy mistake of Felix culpa. It allows God to send the saviour Jesus into the world and redeem humans to be reunited with God in heaven.
What’s Augustine aesthetic point?
Evil existing highlights the goodness of creation due to the contrast between good and evil. Allowing good actions to be easily acknowledged and bad actions to easily be distinguished from the good.
How can you show awareness of Augustine?
A complex set of idea based up biblical teachings and empirical evidence. His theodicy is regarded as one of the most enlightening of his time and he was incredibly influential.
What’s the logical contradiction of the Augustine Theodicy? (world)
How can a perfect world go wrong? Schleiermacher argues either the world wasn’t perfect or God enabled it to go wrong.
What’s the second logical contradiction of Augustine’s theodicy?
How could prefect beings choose to do wrong? If we were perfect and goodness was hardwired into our nature then why would we chose evil with our free will.
What criticism related to science regarding Augustine’s theodicy?
How can a world really be made perfect when nature isn’t perfect? His view is at odds with science as the nature of humans has progressed and humans have risen, not fallen with the evolution of their animals instincts. He relies heavily on the genesis story and science, history and biology disproves this, so to a literalist this theory is weaker. ie doctrine of original sin and the fall of man is seriously brought into question.
What criticism accuses Augustine of playing word games?
How can it be reasonable to say suffering due to evil being a privation isn’t a real thing when the consequences can be clearly felt. Denys the reality of the problem and pushing the blame away from God. It’s inadequate to use in comforting a grieving parent.
