Augustine On The Origin and Progress of Evil PDF

Journal of Religious Ethics, Inc
Augustine on the Origin and Progress of Evil Author(s): J. Patout Burns Source: The Journal of Religious Ethics, Vol. 16, No. 1 (Spring, 1988), pp. 9-27 Published by: on behalf of Journal of Religious Ethics, Inc Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40015076 . Accessed: 27/09/2013 08:41
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AUGUSTINE ON THE ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OF EVIL J. Patout Burns
ABSTRACT
evil, conflictand corruption apparent Augustinedistinguished amongbodies from true evil, the self-initiatedcorruptionof created spirits. Angels and humansfail to maintainthe perfectionof knowledgeand love given by God and then turnto themselvesas the focus of attentionand appreciation. The originalfailures of both demons and humans were neither provokednor force:each was an autonomous persuadedby any outsidebodily or spiritual sin of pride.This fundamental evil underliesand gives rise and self-initiated to every other sin amonghumansand angels.
Evil was one of the majorpuzzles in the religiousand intellectuallife of Augustineof Hippo. The question of the natureof evil drove the inquiry into God and the humanconditionwhich led up to his conversion,and his early writingsoften focus on the question of the origin of evil. Although the majorlines of his solutionto both of these questionswere established withina decade of his conversion,his thoughtcontinuedto developas he moved through the major controversiesof his life as a proponent and defenderof Christianfaith. This study will be divided into three majorparts of unequallength. In understandthe firstwe shallattempta syntheticexpositionof Augustine's materials from the various works and of the nature of evil, using ing controversiesof his life. This exposition will be supplementedand illustratedby the analysis, in the second part, of his attemptsto discoverthe origin of evil in successive explanations of the fall of the angels and humansfromthe perfectionin which they were originallycreatedby God. In the third section, we shall show that Augustineconsideredpride not only the first but also the most fundamentalsin, which underlies other creature's love of self rather sins. Ourhypothesisis thatpride,the spiritual than God, is for Augustinethe primaryevil. /. THE NATURE OF EVIL Augustine'searly experience of evil was treated in the Confessions. Although he devoted considerable attention to his infant self-will, his
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boyhood laziness in school and competitiveness in games, and to the maliciousprankwhich wouldlaterexemplifyfor him a social formof evil, his primary experience seems to have been the arousal, or rather onslaught,of sexual desire in adolescence (Conf. 1-2). This appetiteoverwhelmedhis youth and constitutedone of the majorobstacles to his later becomingand living as a Christian.Whenhe read Cicero'sHortensiusat age nineteen,he discovereda new good to whichthese fleshlydesireswere opposed. The treatise exhorted to the philosophic quest for wisdom, throughwhich a humanmightrise abovethe wavesof carnaldesire and its satisfactionto enjoy a stable calm in possession of self and truth(3.4.7). The dualisticreligionof Manicheismofferedboth an understanding of the origin and destiny of the world and an explanationof Augustine's experience of good and evil. It taughta cosmic conflict between the two eternally opposed forces, Light and Darkness. The turbulentDarkness attackedthe peaceful realmof Light, captureda portionof it and mixed with it to formthe worldof livingbodies.The continuingstrugglebetween these two forces is evident in the humanperson: Light seeks purification and deliverance;Darkness strives to hold it fast throughfleshly desires. The sexual desires are particularly insidiousbecause generationdisperses the Light amongbodies, therebypreventing its concentrationand escape into the heavens. Good and evil desires, then, arise from two opposed souls and wills within the human being. The religious person identifies with the Light, suffers but is not responsible for the evil desires and actions instigated by the soul of the Darkness which the soul of Light cannot control. Through a strict asceticism, the Manichean elect attemptedto release the Light trappedin living bodies and finallyto escape with it. Augustineembracedthis explanationof his experienceand lived within its frameworkfor nearly a decade as a second-level Manichean adherent{Conf.4.1.1, 7.2.3). Yet this theory of an originaldualismfailed to respond adequatelyto the questionswhich arose in Augustine'smindand in his discussionswith an ever present,thoughchanging,circle of friends.The principaldifficulty arose from the passivity and even impotanceof the Light, the good force in the Manicheansystem. In both the cosmos and the individualhuman being, the Light was unable to withstand or overcome the power of Darkness.This contradicted religiousbeliefs whichAugustineneverreally abandoned:that God was all-powerful and exercisedgovernanceover the world. Yet Augustine himself could find no way to understandhow the divine powerand presence were not limitedby the existence of evil in the world.He thoughtof good and evil in the Manicheanmanner,as different kinds of materialbeing, as bodies which occupied and fought in space. Thus evil either existed withina God, all-presentas a kind of medium,or evil excludedthe divine presencefromthe space it occupied,limitingit to
Augustineon the Originand Progressof Evil
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a God who was the all-powerful anotherrealm.Similarly, creatorand ruler of the worldwouldhavethe powerand will to destroyevil root andbranch, then replace it with a good reality.The very existence of evil challenged the notion of an all-powerfuland present God (Conf. 5.10.19-20, 7.1.2, 7.5.7). Throughhis contact with Ambrose, the bishop of Milan, Augustine discoveredthat the Catholicchurch,in which he had been raised, taught that God is not a body spatiallyextendedin the world(Conf.6.3.4). Evil, he was told, is an individual's bad choice or the punishmentsufferedfor made such a In choice. the Catholic view, then, evil is not an having of but either a certainkind of activityon the part independenttype being of a creatureor God'sjust rulingof its perpetrator (7.3.5). Yet he was not able to understandthis. Because he could not conceive of a nommaterial, nonspatial reality,he could not understandGod's presence and governance. Only later, through reading some of the treatises of the thirdcentury philosopher Plotinus, was Augustine able to come to a new of truthor wisdomand thus of evil (5.14.25, 7.5.7, 7.1.1-2). understanding A process of intellectualintrospection,underthe guidanceof Platonic philosophy,enabled Augustine to perceive unchangingprincipleswhich governthe existence and operationof materialbeings.In these principles, he recognizedTruth,an unchangeable, nonextendedand nonspatialform of being which is everywherepresent and operative,governingand regulatingboth the changinghumanmindand bodily realities.The principles of meterwhichmakepoetrypleasingto the ear,like the proportions which make certain shapes pleasantto the eye, for example,are more real than the sounds and shapes whose structurethey provide.Indeed, the principles of art are moreperfectthanthe mindand the senses whichare guided by them in formingand recognizingbeautifulverses and bodies. On the basis of their mode of existence and operation,he identifiedthese princiandeternal ples as a portionof the divineTruthwhichexists unchangeable and which governs or regulates all the operations of creatures (Conf 7.10.16, 7.17.23;De div. quaest. 54). Throughthis insight into the reality of unchangingand unchangeable of evil as the corruptionof truth, Augustine reached an understanding changeablebeing, throughwhich it falls awayfrom the perfectionestablished for its naturein the unchanging principles.Clearly,such corruption cannot exist in itself but occurs only in a naturewhich continuesto exist, thoughin a reducedor limitedmanner.For if a changeablebeing were to be completelycorrupted,it would simplycease to exist and its corruption wouldperishwith it. Thushe concludedthat the Manicheannotionof evil as an independentkind of reality,powerfullyopposed to the divine, was impossible.To the degreethat a beingdoes exist and act, its realityderives from God; to the extent that it fails in being and falls shortin operation,it
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is evil. He perceived,moreover,that God is presentto changeablebeings not spatially but by governing their being and operation through the unchanging principles.The corruptionwhich affects the beings can, then, neithercontaminatethe divine realitynor disruptthe truththroughwhich God rules the world (Conf. 7.11.17-7.12.18; De lib. arb. 3.13.36-38; De div. quaest. 30). On the basis of this understandingof the divine governing of the materialworld, Augustine was able to develop an understanding of the in livingbodies, the realmin whichthe orderof generationand corruption Manicheeslocated evil and its operations.First,he noted that the orderof in theirdegrees the universerequiresa varietyof kindsof beings, differing of perfection.The moon does not shine with the splendorof the sun; the universeas a whole is more beautifulthan it would be with two suns and no moon in the heavens {De lib. arb. 3.9.24-25). Second, the conflict between materialbodies throughwhich one corruptsand consumes another also follows the orderof the world.As the beautyof a verse requires that each syllable give way to the next, so the birthand death of material beings serves the goodness and perfectionof the worldas a whole. Beings withinthe worldmay be contraryto one another,and therebyone may be "evil" for its victim; nothing, however, stands outside and attacks the order of the materialworld as a whole. Thus Augustinearguedthat true evil cannot be found within the materialworld taken as a whole. Each thing acts and is acted upon, corruptsand is corrupted,accordingto its proper nature and its role within the universal order {Conf. 4.13.20, 7.13.19-16.22; De lib. arb. 3.15.42-44, 3.23.69-70). Divine justice integrates rational spirits into the universal order according to their free exercise of love. Trueevil is to be found in the realmof rationalbeings, amongspiritual entities which are immortalin their substanceor essence but changeable andthereforecorruptible in theirmode of existence.In a spiritual creature, evil is the absence of the perfectionor fullness of goodness and reality which the natureitself and the divine orderdemand.Thus it mightbe the loss of some quality once possessed or the failure to acquire,through negligenceor refusal,some due and availableattribute. Unlike the materialworld, which contains beings of varyingnatural strengthand beauty,the realm of spiritualcreaturesis characterizedby equality.Only the divine is naturallybetterand strongerthan any created spirit.Moreover,every spiritualnature,no matterhow corrupted,is naturally better and more powerfulthan any materialbeing. Among spiritual beings, differencesin strengthare degrees of perfectionor virtue. Thus Augustine argued that no spiritualbeing can corrupt the goodness of another.The aggressor,by the very intentionto harmanother,wouldlose the goodness and powerof which it soughtto depriveits intendedvictim;
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it would be weakerand could cause no harmto the other.All spiritualevil or divinely inflictedpunishis, therefore,either voluntaryself-corruption ment of such evil (De lib. arb. 3.14.39-41). The spiritualcreaturewhich corruptsitself is disorderedwithinits own being: it lacks that perfection and fullness of reality with which it was endowed or for which it was ordained by God. Its activity is likewise disordered,contrary to the principlesof order established by God and being and its activity perceptibleby the rationalmind.Both the corrupted into the order of the universe are, however,integrated by divine governance. The action which springs from a sinful will is used by God to punish its authoror anothersinner,or to perfectthe virtue and goodness of some other creature (De div. quaest. 53; De spir. et litt. 31.54). An example and applicationof this theory will clarify it. A servant'sdisobedience may be appropriately punishedby assigninghim to clean out the household'slatrine:the drainmust be cleanedand the sinnerdeserves the dirtyjob. The devil'senvious and thereby sinful will finds an appropriate object in the dominationof the sinnerswho subjectthemselvesto his rule. into ajust andorderedwhole. The injusticeof lord and slaveare integrated The universe does not require the corruptionof spiritualcreatures to attainits perfectionbut its orderand beautyencompassestheir being and action (De lib. arb. 1.1.1, 3.9.24-27, 3.10.29, 3.15.42-44; De div. quaest. 27). In order to understandthe natureand originof spiritualevil, we must furtherexamine the perfectionof the rationalbeing which is corrupted. The changeablegoodness of a created spirit consists in its knowledgein the mind and its love in the will. In his experience of unchangingtruth, Augustineexperiencedthe Light and the principlesgraspedthroughit as above his mind, ruling its operations as it governed the natures and operations of materialbodies. He concluded that the perfection of the mind is not inherentin it and underits control.Ratherthe mindoperates under the continuing influence and guidance of the divine Word. He subsequentlyextendedthis explanationto the will'slovinggood underthe operationof the Holy Spirit.Whenthe divine influenceand operationare diminishedor lost, the twin perfections of knowledgeand love are corrupted.The deficiencyin the mindand will resultsin operationalfailures, will now be developedfor both the intellect errorand sin. This explanation and the will. both of the divine The created intellect comes to an understanding, received realityand of the createdworld,throughan interiorillumination from the Wordof God, the eternalTruth.The minds of both humansand angels were originallyendowed with this gift. They rejoiced in the conin the governance templationof God and were to guide theirparticipation of the world by the knowledgeof creationwhich was given in God. This
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illuminationis symbolized by the fountainwhich wateredthe whole of paradise.Because this kindof knowledgeneverbecomes the "possession" of the created mind, it is maintainedby submissionto God, by focusing attentionon the divine Light (De Gen. c. Man. 2.4.5-2.5.6; De lib. arb. 3.10.30, 3.11.32; De div. quaest. 46). If the mind turns its attentionaway from the unchangeableprinciplesand relies on its senses to understand and its inherentpower to judge, it immediatelyfalls into the darknessof error and opinion. This corruption,then, is not simple ignorance but ratherfolly, a rejectionof wisdom. The person turns awaythroughdirection of attention,an act of will, which can be describedaccordingto its object as pridein relianceon one'sown abilityor as curiosityin fascination with the exteriorworld. The mind which has been turned away does not completely lose the influence of the divine Light but suffers a weakness which is best described as a kind of forgetfulness. In its weakened state, it labors to discover truthin the exteriorworld. The person is regularlydeceived by and the way in appearancesand fails to understandthe soul's spirituality which it oughtto act. In some of his earlyworks,Augustineexplainedthat ignorancewas a corruptionof the mindonly when the individualhad lost knowledgeor negligentlyfailed to acquireit. The disciplineof the liberal arts, Platonicphilosophy,and the Christianlife were proposedas appropriate means to lead the mind back from its fascinationwith material bodies to the perceptionof the divine Truthwithin and above it {De lib. arb. 3.19.53, 3.22.64-65). Once he decided that the state of folly which afflicts all humansfrom birthis the just consequence and punishmentof the sin which humanscommittedin or inheritedfromAdam,he held each individual responsiblefor errorinjudgmentandconsequentdisorientation in choice and action.Thus, faithin the teachingof Christand the guidance of the church,both divinelysanctionedadmonitions throughthe senses to those who were weak in mind,became much more significant. The mind does not corruptitself by turningway from the divine Light The spirit'scorruption which is the source of its understanding. originates in the will, in a failureof love. Indeed,Augustineinsistedthat no degreeof wisdom or knowledge could prevent the failure of the will, just as no teachingor guidancecould restorethe perfectionof love of good {De lib. arb. 3.24.72). AlthoughAugustinecame to recognize the dependenceof the created mind upon the divine Wordthroughthe study of Platonismprior to his of the operationof the Holy Spirit in the conversion, his understanding created will developed somewhat later. Initially,he opposed the Maneven inalienwith an assertionof the natural, icheandualisticdeterminism able, power to choose between good and evil, to turn to the eternal and unchangingwhich can bring happiness or to prefer the temporal and
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unstable whose inevitable loss causes misery (De lib. arb. 1.12.251.16.34).Under the influenceof the Paulinewritings, he came to understandthat the perfectionof the will, like that of the intellect,derivesfrom the creature'sunion with the divine ratherthan from any inherentpower or from perfectionacquiredby its own effort. Throughthe indwellingof the Holy Spirit,the divine Love, the creatureis movedto love God as the highest and common good shared by all creatures.Self, other rational creatures, and materialbodies are also loved for their goodness, all of them howeverin relationto the divine goodness whence they derive.The charitywhich the presence of the Spirit inspires in the created will also moves the person to love the actions which God commandsthroughthe of the Wordor the exterioradmonitionof Christand interiorillumination the scripture.In that perfectionor fullness of charitywhich is grantedin finalbeatitude,the creatureis made incapableof turningfrom the divine. In the lesser degreegiven in this life, charityinspiresa desireandtendency which can continueor fail, at the creature's choice. The corruptionof the will generally comes about througha turning from the higher to the lower good: from God to self, to anothercreated spiritor to a bodily good. Augustineinsisted that the object to which the person turns is not itself evil, rejectingthe Manicheannotion of evil as a is in the turningitself. In his differenttype of being.The evil or corruption earliestworks, underthe influenceof Platonism,Augustinedescribedthe corruptionof the will as a preferencefor temporal,changinggoods attainedthroughthe senses at the expense of the eternal,unchanging goods of the mind (De lib. arb. 1.4.10, 1.8.18, 1.15.32-33;De ver. rel. 3.3; De quan. an. 33.71). Soon, however,he eliminatedthe influenceof the material world in the created spirit's fall from perfection, perhaps out of concern for the dualismof the Manichees.He explainedinstead that the is the love of self ratherthan of God. The primaryform of self-corruption creaturefails in its love of the highestgood and prefersits own goodness; and to rule;it seeks fulfillment the spiritloves it own powerto understand and happiness throughits own resources ratherthan by adheringto the divine gifts of truthand love {De Gen. c. Man. 2.14.20-2.15.22). Augustine explained that this sinful operation of the will is not the to the spirit. turningof a naturalpowerto an object which is itself harmful The sin is rathera defectiveoperation,a failureto maintain thatfullness of love inspiredby the presenceof the Spiritgiven in creation.The operation is evil because it is defective, because it fails to maintaina given level of perfection.Insofaras it is defective,it has no cause {De lib. arb. 2.20.54; is responsiblefor the failure.As De div.quaest. 21).The creature, however, a nondivinebeing, every creatureis capable of change and of decline in being. In the created spirit,freedommeans that the individualcan maintain the fullness of love given by God or initiateits own corruption.The
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decline fromlove of God can also be viewed as a love of self in which the creaturerejectsGod and attemptsto establishits perfectionandhappiness in the throughits own power.In so doing,it deprivesitself of participation divine love and falls furtherinto the love of goods below itself. Despite the vehemence or persistence of a love or desire which is directed to the creaturerather than the creator,Augustine insisted that this activity is defective. It arises not from the strengthbut from the weakness of a will which has rejectedand lost the indwellingof the Holy Spirit. In the spiritualrealm, as in the material,the divine governanceorders defective beings and operations into a just and integratedwhole. The follows necessarily and immediatelyupon punishmentof self-corruption the defective willing. The disordered activities which flow from such correctionor perfectionof willingare directedby God to the punishment, the other spirits affectedby them. The humanspiritcannot be corrupted by another creature against its consent; through the body it can be affected by the actions of other humansand of angels or demons. Thus Augustine insisted that the malicious dominionwhich the demons exercise over humansis used by God to punishthe sins of both (De lib. arb. 3.10.29-31; De div. quaest. 27). The same may be said of the tyrannyof empires over subjectedpeoples and of masters over slaves (De civ. Dei 19.12,15).God even uses the maliceof sinnersto exercise and developthe virtueof saints.Sinfulactioncan neitherdisturbthe orderof the worldnor harman innocentvictim. The evil spiritharmsitself, rendersitself unable to love or seek the good which would bring happiness and fulfillment. Finally,of course, God bringsthe universeto fulfillment by gatheringthe good into eternalhappinessand confiningthe sinnersin unendingpunishment. (De civ. Dei 21.12). ThusAugustineexplainedthatevil is a corruption of the good. Destruction and sufferingin the materialworld,which so troubledthe Manichees, he viewed as appropriatefor the natures of the beings involved and following the just and beautiful order in the whole. True evil must be located in the spiritualworld: specificallyit is the failureto maintainthe love of the highest good in which each spirit was created. That defect corruptsits goodness, leavingthe will weak and the mindconfused. Even the defective and disorderedactivity of these corruptedspiritsis ordered into a unified,just and beautifulwhole. //. THE ORIGIN OF EVIL IN THE PRIDE OF THE DEMONS AND HUMANS The narrativeof the Confessionsand the writingsof the period immediatelyafterhis conversionindicatethat Augustinehad indeedreachedan
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understandingof the nature of evil. None of these writings, however, presents or even claims to present an answer to the more perplexing question: the origin of that evil. In the essays and commentarieswritten within the decade after his conversion to Catholic Christianity,particularlyOn Genesis against the Manichees and On Free Will,he struggled to understandhow evil might have arisen in rationalnatureswhich had been createdgood by God. The extendedinquirywhich runsthrough the three books of On Free Will, composed in stages over a numberof years, and the developmentsor changes in that analysis, already noted with this issue in the above,offerclear evidence that he was still struggling years afterhis conversion. In this second section, we shallfollow Augustine'sattemptsto comprehendthe outbreakof evil amongthe creatures,the initialsins of angelsand humans.In early writings,he emphasizedthe similarity of the angelicand human natures and accounted for the difference in consequences and punishmentof their sins throughthe circumstancesof their sinning:the demons sinned spontaneouslybut humans had been tempted. When he returnedto considerthe initialsins some twenty years later,in his Literal Commentaryon Genesis and The City of God, the sins themselves were presentedas nearlyidentical,spontaneousoutbreaksof evil. The sin of the demons, chronologically prior,will be consideredfirstin our analysis.We shall then pass to the analysis of the outbreakof sin amonghumans. In the thirdbook of OnFree Will,Augustineattemptedto deal with the originof evil in the rationalcreature.He insistedthat a true cause cannot be foundpriorto the evil willing,somethingother than an evil will, which gives rise to sin. Eventually, his questioning led him to consider the occasions or conditionswhich influencethe operationof free choice and of its evil decision. He showedthat the error providesome understanding and carnal desire which influence contemporary humans were consequences of some prior sin for which the individualmay or may not be responsible. Even when a person cannot control the environment or conditionsin which decisions were made, Augustineinsisted, the person remains responsiblefor the decision itself. After briefly referringto the biblicalaccountof the humansin, in whicha choice was madebetweenthe divine commandand the suggestionof the devil, he consideredthe sin of the demons themselves. The demonswere createdas angels, endowedwith the contemplation of the divine throughthe illuminationof the Word.In their environmentof choice were to be foundnot only the Blessed Trinitybut, necessarily,their own mindsand the materialworldwhose governancehadbeen committed to them. These rational spirits should have loved the divine more than themselves; indeed they should have despised their own goodness in comparisonto that of God. The demons sinned by delightingin their own
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it to the divine. Their power,by loving their own goodness and preferring sin was pride,the love of theirown lowergood morethanthe higher,divine good {De lib. arb. 3.25.75-76;Der ver.rel. 13.26). In an earliersection of the same treatise,Augustinehad explainedthat because the demons sinned throughtheir own initiative,without being tempted or persuadedby anyone else, they cannot repent and be saved of another.Hence they are eternallyfixed in their throughthe intervention self-love{De lib. arb. 3.10.29-31). This understanding of the sin of the demonsdid not changesignificantly in Augustine'slater writings.More than twenty years later in his Literal Commentaryon Genesis, he insisted that the initial sin of the demons could not have been envy of the happinessof humanity,as some others l Envy, which is the hatred of the happiness of another, had explained. cannot precede but only follow the love of one's own good and power,the sin of pride (De Gen. ad litt. 11.14). In a slightly later discussion in The City of God Augustine simply assertedthat throughpride some of the angels turnedfrom God to themselves and therebyseparatedthemselvesfromthe others who maintained their love for God. This discussion moreover, shows evidence of the concerns of the Pelagiancontroversy:the natureof createdfreedomand the powerof a creatureto makeitself better,to acquirea perfectionwhich is not the gift of God. Augustine offered a fuller explanation of the casuality involved. First he explained that the angels who remained faithfulhad not addedto theirgoodness by the exercise of a naturalpower of choice. Theyhad rathercontinuedin that lovingof God with which they had been endowedin creation.The demons sinnedby failingto guardand maintainthis love. Thus the sin was more a slippingthan a turningaway; they failed to continue in the operationwhich the Holy Spiritinspiredin them. Theirlove and desire, thus corruptedand weakened,then attained only a lowergood, the self (De civ. Dei 12.6.9). Augustinedid not repeatthe earlierexplanationthat the demons were Indeedin the contemfixed in evil because they had sinnedspontaneously. also human sin was spontaneous.He seems insteadto poraryexplanation, his have thoughtin termsof the analysisof sin and gracewhich undergird The humans. and the of election of angels grace among theory gratuity loved God more than themselvesby cooperatingwith the operationof the Holy Spirit,not by a naturaland inalienablepower.Once they had abandoned the influence of the Spirit, they were weak and could love only themselvesor lowergoods. Theiroriginalgoodness could be restoredonly Theircontinuancein sin, througha totally unmeriteddivine intervention. like that of humans, results from a divine decision which orders the universe by manifesting justice in their punishmentratherthan mercy in their restoration(De civ. Dei 22.1).
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The originalsin of humansreceived more extendedattentionthan that of the demons. As has been noted, the question of the outbreakof sin in the humanwill runs throughthe successive books of On Free Will.The early discussionof the sin of the demonsis prefaced,andeven required, by attempts to deal with human sin. Augustine'sfirst commentaryon the openingchaptersof the book of Genesis, directedagainstthe Manichean of the narrativeof creation and fall, providedthe first misinterpretation occasion for a explanationof the sin of humanity. humansinningin responseto In On Free Will,Augustinedistinguished temptationfrom the spontaneousrebellionof the demons. He separated himself from the tradition,however,by insistingthat the temptationwas not relatedto the bodily conditionof humanity. Ambrose,like his contemhad the of followed traditional Platonic explanaporary Gregory Nyssa, tion that the appetitesand passions of the earthlybody are inimicalto the life of the mind. In an interpretation adaptedfrom Philo,the first-century Jewish exegete Ambrose explained that sin arose through humanity's failure to exclude or control the noxious influence of passion. Perhaps because of his concern to exclude the Manicheandualism, Augustine refusedto admita conflictbetweenmindand body appetitein the original worldorder.2He insisted that this division arises fromand punishesa sin of the spirit. In On Genesis against the Manichees} Augustine followed an alleof the text similarto that which Ambroseborrowed gorical interpretation from Philo.Adam symbolizedthe mind,Eve the sense facultyof the soul, and the serpentthe demon.Paradisesignifiedthe happystate of the spirit, wateredby the interiorfountainof divineTruth.He assignedno elementin the allegoryto symbolizethe experienceof bodily appetiteor passion,the traditional meaningof the tree of the knowledgeof good and evil. Instead, the suggestionof the he insistedthatthe humanmindwas temptedthrough demon, introduced into the mind through its natural companion and helpmatein good action, the sense faculty.The demon had alreadyfallen and happycondition throughself-loveand was envious of the uncorrupted of the humanspirit.This fallen angel suggestedthat humansshould also reject the guidance of the eternal principlesestablished in the Wordof God and rely upon their own powerof discernment.He temptedhumans to prefertheir own power and goodness to that of God. That suggestion arousedan appetitiveresponse, a delight,in the sense faculty.The mind, however,had the capacityto reject the notion and its attraction,to follow the divine command,and to adhereto the divine Truthby which it was illumined.Instead, the humanspiritfollowedthe suggestionof the devil: the mindturnedfromGod to self. Thushumansattemptedto attaindivine autonomy,to possess their happinessas only God can, independentlyof any other nature(De Gen. c. Man. 2.14.20-2.15.22).
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Augustinewas at pains in this treatiseand in the parallelanalysisin On Free Willto show that the sin of humanitydid not arise because of any originaloppositionbetween body and spiritor mind and sense. Through the allegoricalinterpretation of Adam and Eve as parts of the soul, he insisted that the power of sensation is a facultyof the soul derivedfrom mind and perfectlysuited to its properoperationand activity.All opposition between body and soul or between mind and sense derives from the initialsin of spiritualpride.The spirit'sdifficultyin attainingclear understandingof what ought to be done, symbolizedby Adam'slaboron earth, and its difficultyin actingon that knowledge,symbolizedby Eve's pain in are consequencesof its rebellionagainstGod (De Gen. c. Man. childbirth, 2.4.5-2.5.6; 2.18.28-2.21.31). At that point, Augustineexplainedthathumanshavethe opportunity to regainbeatitudeby consentingto the persuasionof Christbecause they sinned throughthe suggestionof the demons ratherthan spontaneously. The punishmentof their sin, the mortalityof the body throughwhich the spirit is weighed down and even placed at the mercy of the beasts, was intendedto humblethe spiritandprepareit to accept God'smercy(De lib. arb., 3.10.29-31). Unlike his explanationof the sin of the demons, Augustine'sunderstandingof the initialsin of humanitychangedin his later writings.In his Literal Commentary on Genesis, Augustinechose to avoidthe allegorical of the creationand fall which he had preferred two decades interpretation earlierin On Genesis against the Manichees. He took Adamand Eve as individualswho were temptedby Satan using the snake as a medium.In his analysis of the temptationitself, however,he noted that the devil's suggestioncould not have been plausibleto minds which were still spiritual, enjoying the guidance of the divine Truth with which they were originally endowed. He surmised that before she was tempted by the demon, Eve had alreadysinned, throughpride. God allowedthe devil to tempt her to an open transgressionin order to manifestand correct that first, hidden sin. The deception would show the inadequacyof human powerwhen deprivedof divine guidanceand mightmove Eve to humility (De Gen. adlitt., 11.5, 11.27, 11.30).3 If Adamhad not alreadysinnedlike Eve by pride, he could not have been seduced by Satan'sinsinuationof jealousy on God's part. Augustine advanced the opinion that he might have violated God's command out of a false sense of loyalty to Eve (11.42).4Pride was evident, however,in Adam'srefusalto accept responsibilityfor his sin (11.35). The explanationof an originalsin of pridepriorto the transgression of the divine commandwas carriedfurtherin The City of God where Augustine droppedthe distinctionbetween the sins of Adamand of Eve. He repeatedthe explanationof the Genesis commentarythat Adam sinned
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with knowinglyand willinglyout of a desire to retainhis companionship Eve (De civ. Dei, 14.11). He then undertook a fuller analysis which uncoveredthe earliersins of pride at the base of both Eve's believingthe his wife'swill to God'scommand.Priorto devil'slie and Adam'spreferring theirtemptationby the devil, Adamand Eve had each sinned secretlyand untemptedthroughpride or self-love.The purpose of the divine prohibition of eatingfromthe tree was to occasion an indisputable and indefensible sin which would manifest the prior, hidden sin of pride and lead that the therebyto its correction(De civ. Dei 14.13).Augustineremarked underlyingpride was even more evident in the pair's attemptto excuse their transgression(14.4). The earlierdistinctionbetween the spontaneoussin of the demons and fall to temptationwas eliminatedin these later works of Auhumanity's gustine. Both humans and demons sinned spontaneouslythroughpride. God bestows an unearnedmercy upon those humanswhom he rescues fromthe sinfulconditioninto which all fell in AdamandEve. The firststep in this process is, accordingto Paul, the revelationof the law through which the sinneris convicted of guilt,forced to acknowledgethe inability to do the just and commandedgood works, and thereby made ready to respond in humilityto the divine offer of grace. The commandgiven in on Sinai:to manifest Paradisehas the same functionas the law proclaimed and correcta priorsin of pride. In his successive considerationsof the initial sins of angels and of humans,Augustinearguedthat the createdspiritcorruptsitself by falling awayfrom full love, failingto cooperatewith the love of God which is the Holy Spirit. It destroys the pristine goodness with which God had endowedit and loves its own goodness more than the divine source whence it is received and by which it is preserved.Failingin the love of God, the spiritsins by self-loveor pride,the outbreakof evil in the world.Fromthis failure follow confusion and error in the mind and disorder in bodily affectionsand operations. We turn now to Augustine'sconsiderationof the subsequent sins of demons and humans.We shall discoverthat prideis the fundamental sin, the one which underliesother sins andunlkethemhas no salvificfunction. ///. PRIDE IN THE SINNING OF DEMONS AND HUMANS The continued sinning of the demons receives little attentionin Augustine'swritings;his attentionfocused insteadon humansinningand on the ways in which it is forgivenand overcomein Christ.In his commentaries on Genesis, he noted the envy in which the demons tempted
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it to the priorsin of pride.In his discussionof humanityto sin, attributing and astrology paganreligion,he discernedthe operationsof the demons, in the place of The devils'desireto be worshipped leadinghumanity astray. the true God indicates an extension of the pride in which they first fell awayfrom God. Perhapsthe most strikingof Augustine'sreflectionson humansinning is to be found in the second book of his Confessions, in which he recounted and examinedthe stealing of pears from a neighbor'stree by a group of companions.He went to considerablelengths to show that the deed was neitherpromptedby nor satisfiedbodily appetite.As motives, he identifieda perverse desire to act with autonomyor impunityand a kind of society in evil throughwhich the companionsdid together what none would have done alone. In the narrative of the stages of his conversionin books seven and eight of the Confessions, Augustine found another evidence of pride in his insistence on reasonedproof or understanding and unwillingnessto give himself up to faith. Only when the weight of his carnalhabits pulled him downfromthejoy of Platoniccontemplation of Truthwouldhe turnto the church for guidancein a life which would free him of the power of lust. Still unableto conquerthat lust, he had finallyto abandonhis own power and give himselfover to the help of God in Christ(Conf.7.18.24). In each of his majorcontroversies,Augustinediscoveredpride as the drivingforce which had driven his adversariesinto a misunderstanding and perversionof Christiantruth. The Paulineletters which had proven decisive in his own conversionprovidedthe earliestandlatestinsightsinto the ways of pride. In his first writings on Paul, Augustine remarkeda numberof manifestations of pride or self-reliance.God gave the written law so that humans would be broughtto face their inabilityto fulfill the directives which were recognizedas true and just. Therebythey were to be drawn back from pride and broughtto seek God's help throughChrist. Pride, however,reacted in quite differentways to the law. The Israelitesjudged that it had been given to them for their merits, in which they had proven themselves superior to other peoples. In some the divine commands provokedan even greaterdesire to sin, in rebellionagainstthe prohibition. Othersattemptedto fulfillthe commandsby their own powerand thus to justify themselves before God. In his later controversywith Pelagius, Augustinewould recall and extend this indictmentof humanpride (Exp. ep. ad Gal 24.14, 25.9-10; Prop, ad Rom. 13-18, 32.1, 60, 64; Ad Simpl. 1.1.5, 1.1.14;Debon.vid. 16.20;Depecc. mer.2.19.33). Althoughhe was generally sympatheticto the Manichees because of their inabilityto perceive the true natureof evil, Augustineasserted that the entire Manichean dualistic doctrine was based upon pride. They
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claimedthatthe divine Lightis powerlessbeforethe onslaughtof evil, that it is contaminatedand suffers in the materialworld. This blasphemous for their theorywas constructedto absolve humanbeingsof responsibility evil desires and actions (C. Faust. 22.22).Moreover, they claimedto have Christian provenand establishedall this throughhumanreason,ridiculing submissionto the authorityof Christ(Conf.6.5.7). The DonatistChristianChurchseparateditself fromCatholicunityand claimed to be the only inheritance of Christ out of all the world. In Augustine's analysis, the Donatists located the foundation of their church'ssanctity,not in God's gift and fidelity,but in the innocence and purity of their church'sbishops. Pride claims the power to sanctify and refuses to acknowledgethat God's powercannot be thrwarted by human the fulfillment of Christ's that does not rest failure, kingdom upon human achievement.In exaltingtheir own purityand despisingthe Catholicsfor allowing sinners in their communion,the Donatists attemptedto justify themselves and gloried in their own goodness. Yet it was precisely this pride, Augustine argued, which Paul had sought to suppress when he of the degeneratefromthe Corinthian orderedthe excommunication community:Paul feared that others would glorify themselves by comparing their goodness to his evil (C. litt. Petil 1,6,7, 2.101.233, 3.27.32, 3.36.42; C ep. Farm. 3.2.5). In the Christianperfectionismof Pelagius, Augustinedetected a most dangerousform of pride. Pelagiusclaimedthat God had endowedhuman naturewith an inalienablecapacityto choose and performgood. The law given by God clearly demonstratedwhat humanscould accomplish:the Creator knew the power of the nature he made; the Judge would not commandthe impossible.God'sgraceforgivessins or providesincentives which facilitateor encouragethe good will and actionwhich humanshave the naturalpower to accomplish.This grace, moreover,is given to those who deserve or earn it. To Augustine'smind this doctrine was an utter perversion of the Pauline teaching on the purpose of the law, on the necessity and the gratuityof grace. It fell into the greatest of evils: selfrighteousness.The Pelagiansclaimedfor themselvesthe very gifts of God by which they had managedto fulfillsome provisionof the law.As we shall of grace which totally see below, Augustineinsisted on an understanding excludedhumanpride (De spir.et litt. 7.11, 9.15, 10.17). Even the Platonist philosophers whose writings had been of such assistance to Augustine in his breakingfree of Manicheismwere found guilty of a pride which ruinedtheir achievements.Augustinenoted their rejection of the incarnation,the humilityand humiliationof the divine Truthundertakenfor the sake of those who would not attain an intellectual vision of God. In contrast, the knowledge of God which the philosophers had achievedhad led them, not to glorify God, but to pride in
24
their accomplishment (Conf., 7.20.26;De spin et litt., 12.19, 13.22).Even theirasceticismwas pervertedby pride:they despisedthe body createdby God, with its appetitesand emotions (De civ. Dei, 14.5).Theirself-control led them to demonic glorying in the complacency of their minds. Far better to feel joy and fear before God, to feel pain at one's present condition, and to feel desire for the salvation of the neighbor,argued Augustine,than this self-centeredand self-satisfiedimpassibility(De civ. Dei 14.9). Similarly,in his considerationof the achievementsof the Romansand theirempire,Augustinefoundthe desirefor glory and the lust for domination to be the driving forces of Roman society. Indeed, every human empireaspiresto exercise a controlover peoples which mimicsthe divine orderingof the universe(De div.Dei 19.12). For Augustine,then, pride is the root form of evil, separatingthe self from God and playing itself out in claims to moral self-sufficiency,to religious superiority and to political domination. Consequently,if the power of evil is to be broken, pride is the principalobstacle to be overcome; and Augustine'smatureexposition of the relationbetween divine grace and humanfreedom, duringthe controversywith Pelagiusand his supporters,concentrateson just this point. The writtenlaw is imposedby God in order to dissolve a person's sense of self-reliance.Conversion, throughwhich a person believes in Christand receives the assistance of the Holy Spirit,is a divine operation,given withoutpriormeritsand itself involving no meritoriushuman cooperation.Of course, the person who has receivedgracemustalso cooperatewith this divineassistancein living the Christianlife. But perseverancein willingand enactingthe good until the end of one's life, throughwhich one attainseternalbeatitude,is still to be attributedto a divine operationwhich sustains and supportshuman cooperation.Thus the saints will glorify God for their salvationand will claim neitherinitiativenor even autonomouscooperationfor themselves.5 From the time of his conversion through his late works, Augustine found the counter to pride in the humilityof Christ in the incarnation. Morethan any of the worksof Christ'slife and ministry, the very takingof the Word of God itself reversed the humanity by pretensionsof humansin. It demonstrated the divine humilitywhich is at once the antithesisto and the remedyfor the humanself-assertionwhich divides persons from God and sets them against each other. In his passion, Christ even used the demon'spride and desire for dominationto gain victory where Adamhad suffereddefeat (Exp.ep. ad Gal. 24.5-10; Conf.7.18.24).Correspondingly, in his developingunderstanding of the church,Augustineemphasizedthe unity of mutual love and forgiveness which overcomes the elitism and division characteristic of pride in its religiousand its political manifestations.
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Augustine'sinfluence is often associated, of course, with lust or concupiscence as the more obvious evil or disorder in human beings; and certainly, in Augustine's view, lust plays a central role in the life of thanthat of pride. humanityafterthe originalsin, a role no less significant Augustine insisted, however, that the division between "flesh" and "spirit"is itself the result of the prior sin of pride (Conf. 2.2.2; 7.7.11; 8.5.10; 8.10.22). The revolt of the flesh and its unruly desires is to be understoodas a punishmentof the mindfor its own revoltagainstGod, a disorderboth broughtupon the mindby itself and imposeduponthe mind this disorderin the self can, underthe influenceof by God.6Furthermore grace, serve as a corrective for the pride of the spirit.7The continuing in the Paulinelanguage divisionwithinhumanpower,which is represented of the conflict between spiritand flesh, demonstratesthe impossibilityof even afterGod'sgracehas been received.On the one hand, self-sufficiency then, concupiscence can be construedas a sort of sacramentof sin, itself evil and symbolic of deeper evil from which it results and for which it serves as punishment;and, on the other hand, it can, in an unexpected way, take on salvific significanceunder grace as a means of overcoming that deeper evil. No such construction is possible in the case of pride. While divine grace may use the derivativeevil of concupiscenceto uprootthe foundascheme of return tionaldisorder,prideitself has no role in the Augustinian to God. It is a fundamentalfailure of love, and it has no redemptive function. Divine governanceintegratespride into the world order as its own punishment; yet, in itself, prideserves only to measurethe distanceof fall into an imaginedindependenceand awayfromthe Truth the creature's which is the Good commonto all. CONCLUSION The problem of the nature and origin of evil was one of the driving forces in Augustine'sintellectuallife. The solutionproposedby the Manichees led only to contradictions. Throughthe preachingof Ambrose,he in which he had the to consider teachingof the Christianity again began to him through been raised.The Platonicphilosophicaltradition,available had been Christian to Plotinus, theologians developa notion exploitedby of evil as the absence of being and a view of sin as a turnof the will from the higherto the lower good, specificallyto the satisfactionof carnallife. and throughhis reflecBecause of his earlierexperiencewith Manicheism tions on the writingsof Paul,Augustinefocused on Plotinus'notionof selfassertion.Throughsuccessive reflectionson scripture,on his own experience, and on the conflicts which afflicted Christianityat the time, he
26
sin, developedthe doctrinethatprideis the originaland most fundamental the root of all the evil which humanityperpetratesand suffers.In opposition to this evil, he built his understanding of the work of Christ, both and death, and the operationof the Holy Spirit,in election to incarnation grace and glory.Those who humblethemselveswith Christwill be raised to eternalpeace and glory;those who exalt themselveswith Satanwill be cast down into eternaldiscordand frustration. NOTES
1. This was an explanation offered,for example,by Ambrosein On Paradise and by Gregoryof Nyssa in On the Makingof Man and TheAddresson Religious Instruction. 2. In De lib. arb. 3.10.29-30 and 3.25.74, Augustine can even be read as assertingthathumanswere createdlike angelsin a heavenlyratherthanan earthly condition. See the whole section, 3.9.25-3.12.35. 3. Indeed,the devil mighthavebeen allowedto temptEve interiorly as he did Judas, because she had already sinned by pride. 4. Thatloyaltymust not, however,be interpreted as carnaldesire. Augustine rejectedas foolish the idea that Adamand Eve sinned sexually{De Gen. ad litt. 11.41).He consideredthe statementof 1 Tim. 2:13-14to meanthat Adam,unlike Eve, was not seduced. 5. The priorityof the divine initiative,the efficacyof the grace of conversion, and the necessity and gratuityof the gift of charityare all well explainedin On the Grace of Christ.The doctrineof God'saction in perseverance is explainedin On Grace and Free Willand On the Gift of Perseverance.A summarystatementmay be found in De civ. Dei 22.30. 6. Among many other instances, see De civ. Dei 14.15. 7. This was Augustine'sinterpretation of Romans7 duringthe last two decades of his life.
REFERENCES
Ad Simplicianumde diversis quaestionibus[To Simplician: On VariousQuestions]. Conf. Confessiones[Confessions]. C. ep. Parm. Contraepistulamparmeniani[AgainstParmenian's Letter]. C Faust Contra Faustum Manichaeum [Against Faustus the Manichaean]. C litt. Petil. Contra litteras Petiliani [Against the Writings of Petilian]. De bon. vid. De bono viduitatis[The Good of Widowhood]. De civ. Dei De civitate Dei [The City of God]. De div. quaest. De diversis quaestionibus83 [On 83 DifferentQuestions]. Augustine Ad Simpl.
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am [LiteralCommentary on Genesis]. De Gen. ad litt. De Genesi ad litter De Gen. c. Man.De Genesi contraManichaeos[OnGenesis against the Manichaeans]. De libero arbitrio[On Free Will]. De lib. arb. is et remissione[TheMeritsand RemisDe pecc. mer. De peccatorummerit sion of Sins]. De quantitateanimi [The Greatnessof the Soul]. De quan. an. a [The Spirit of the Letter]. De spir. et Litt. De spiritu et litter De vera religione [On TrueReligion]. De ver. rel. of the Epistleto the Exp. ep. ad Gal. Expositioepitulaead Galatas[Exposition Galatians]. ex epistulaad Romanos propositionum Prop, ad Rom. Expositioquarundam from the Epistle to the Romans]. [Expositionof Propositions

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Journal of Religious Ethics, Inc

AUGUSTINE ON THE ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OF EVIL J. Patout Burns

Augustineon the Originand Progressof Evil

Augustineon the Originand Progressof Evil

Augustineon the Originand Progressof Evil

Augustineon the Originand Progressof Evil

Augustineon the Originand Progressof Evil

Augustineon the Originand Progressof Evil

Augustineon the Originand Progressof Evil

Augustineon the Originand Progressof Evil

Augustineon the Originand Progressof Evil

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