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Free Will and Theodicy in Augustine: An Exposition and Critique

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 October 2008

Fred Berthold
Fred Berthold
Affiliation:
Professor of Religion, Dartmouth College
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Extract

Not only for Augustine, but for virtually all Christian theologians, the doctrine of free will is of critical importance for theodicy. The reason for this is easy to state: these theologians trace either all (as in the case of Augustine) or much evil to human sin, which in turn is understood as an abuse of the free will with which human beings were endowed by their Creator. Augustine sums it very well: ‘… all that we call evil is either sin or punishment for sin’. The argument of this paper is that, unfortunately, Augustine's statements about free will are not adequate to the great theological burden placed upon them. Such a critical judgement is of considerable consequence for Christian theology generally, since Augustine exercised such an enormous formative influence upon later thinkers.

Type
Articles
Information
Religious Studies , Volume 17 , Issue 4 , December 1981 , pp. 525 - 535
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1981

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References

page 525 note 1 De Genesi ad Litteram, Imperfectus liber I. 3.Google Scholar The specific editions of Augustine's works which are cited are the following: City of God, tr. by Walsh, , Zema, , Monahan, and Honan, , abridged by Bourke, V. J. (Garden City: Doubleday Image, 1958).Google ScholarConfessions, tr. by Ryan, J. K. (Garden City: Doubleday Image, 1960).Google ScholarDe Genesi ad Litteram, Imperfectus liber, which is found in Patrologia Latina, ed. by Migne, J. P. (Paris, 1865), vol. 34.Google ScholarEnchiridon, tr. by Shaw, J. F.Google Scholar, which is found in A Select Library of the Nicene and Post Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, ed. by Schaff, P. (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1956), vol. III.Google ScholarOn Free Will, tr. by Burleigh, J. H. S.Google Scholar, which is found in Augustine: Earlier Writings, The Library of Christian Classics (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1953), vol. vi.Google ScholarOn Rebuke and Grace, in A Select Library…, op. cit. vol. v.Google ScholarOn the Spirit and the Letter, in A Select Library…, op. cit. vol. v.Google ScholarOn the Trinity, in A Select Library…, op. cit. vol. in.Google ScholarOn Two Souls: Against the Manichaeans, in A Select Library…, op. cit. vol. IV.Google ScholarSermo CLIX, in Latina, Patrologia, op. cit. vol. 38.Google ScholarThe Simplician — On Various Questions, in Augustine: Earlier Writings, op. cit. vol. VI.Google Scholar

page 525 note 2 On the Trinity x (book x as a whole is relevant).Google Scholar

page 525 note 3 On Free Will III. 49.Google Scholar

page 526 note 1 Ibid. III. 7.

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page 526 note 3 Ibid. xi. 2. 5.

page 526 note 4 City of God xiv. 6.Google Scholar

page 526 note 5 On Free Will III. 75.Google Scholar

page 526 note 6 Ibid. III. 74.

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page 526 note 8 Confessions III. 9. 10.Google Scholar See also City of God xi. 28.Google Scholar

page 527 note 1 On the Trinity x. 11. 17.Google Scholar

page 527 note 2 Ibid. x. 11. 18 (emphasis added).

page 527 note 3 Ibid. xii. 14. 21.

page 527 note 4 Ibid. VIII. 4. 6.

page 527 note 5 Ibid. See also Book XIII of On the Trinity for the impossibility of willing God without faith. Numerous texts, e.g., Enchiridion XXXIGoogle Scholar, teach that faith is a gift of God.

page 527 note 6 On the Trinity VIII. 5. 7.Google Scholar

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page 529 note 1 On Rebuke and Grace 31.Google Scholar See also City of God XIII. 15 and XIV. 15.Google Scholar

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page 530 note 1 On the Spirit and the Letter xxx. 52 (emphasis added).Google Scholar

page 530 note 2 Romans 7: 16–20.Google Scholar

page 531 note 1 To Simplican - On Various Questions i. 7 (emphasis added).Google Scholar

page 531 note 2 Ibid. I. 9 (emphasis added).

page 531 note 3 Enchiridion XXVII.Google Scholar

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page 532 note 1 For an analysis of the concept ‘disability of the will’ see Gert, B. and Duggan, T., ‘Free Will as the Ability to Will’, Nous XIII (1979), 197–217.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

page 532 note 2 Hawthorne, N., The Scarlet Letter (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, second edition, 1878), p. 247 (emphasis added).Google Scholar I am indebted to Dr Richard Ferrell for this reference.

page 532 note 3 On Free Will III. 50–2.Google Scholar See also On the Trinity x. II. 18.Google Scholar

page 533 note 1 City of God XIV. 26.Google Scholar The quote within the quote is from I Timothy I: 5.Google Scholar

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page 533 note 4 On Free Will III. 74.Google Scholar

page 533 note 5 Ibid. III. 71.

page 534 note 1 Ibid. (emphasis added).

page 534 note 2 Ibid. III. 72.

page 534 note 3 Ibid. 74 (emphasis added).

page 534 note 4 Genesis I: 16–18.Google Scholar