PROBLEM OF EVIL

St. Augustine Problem of Evil

St. Augustine Problem of Evil

Introduction

St. Augustine (354-430 CE) is a highly influential Christian writer of late ancient times and has been an inspirational figure for medieval, reformation, counter-reformation, and conservative political thought. Political figures as diverse as Martin Luther in the fifteenth century and Hannah Arendt in the twentieth century have read St. Augustine closely and reused his conceptual vocabulary in their own work. Augustinian political theology has been particularly relevant to the discussion of: the role of human nature and sinfulness in political structures; the function of divine will and predestination in man's history; the relationship of church and state; the nature of justice and punishment; and the theory of just war. Different historical periods have emphasized different aspects of St. Augustine's thought. In medieval political thought, neo-Augustinian approaches developed, particularly in relation to the question of papal-secular authority (Crenshaw, 2005). By contrast, Reformation and Counter-Reformation writers tended to look to St. Augustine for guidance on the role of divine grace in human affairs. In contemporary political philosophy, St. Augustine has had resonance for theorists who argue that a realist outlook on politics is desirable; for example, writers like Reinhold Niebuhr and Hans Morgenthau.

St. Augustine made some very important philosophical assistance to fight back the beliefs of Christianity. One of this assistance worried the philosophical difficulty of evil. Up until St. Augustine's time, philosophers questioned the idea suggested by Christians that bad developed in a world created by a flawlessly good proceeded. The difficulty is very simple sufficient to understand, yet somewhat more perplexing to solve. (Curley, 2006) St. Augustine raised some fairly good propositions to offer an explanation for this question. Although the difficulty of bad has been answered for the most part, there are still many who disbelieve St. Augustine's interpretation of the dispute. To me, this is in good reason; the problem of evil is inherent to understanding the big picture that Christianity has to offer, and as such, it is not something that can be easily solved.

The paper aims at discussing Augustine's problem of evil while examining the solution to the problem with critical analysis on his views.

Discussion

The problem of evil has been the topic of discussion over the years in the philosophy of religion. The question whether God exists or not is debatable. Now the question is that would the problem of evil be ever resolved or not? It can be suggested that process religion - a relatively new philosophy proposing a naturalistic divinity can finally offer a satisfying answer to this problem. The paper below would provide responses to the existing problem of evil and will focus on the consequences it has in a number of ways. A solution would also be proposed so that the righteous path can be specified upon contradictions.

The nature of philosophical ideology on the basis of beliefs related to religion raises a debate over the variety of topics. The point whether God exists and his Divinity, Supreme Control over the universe are the points to ponder ...