An Analysis of Augustine's Argument in Confessions That Evil Does Not Exist

Abstract

For Augustine, following Genesis, it is a bedrock belief that creation is good. Perhaps this is the Augustinian belief. But it immediately gives rise to what is perhaps the Augustinian problem, namely, the problem of evil. For “[w]here then does evil come from, seeing that God is good and made all things good?” (Augustine 1992, 76; 1963, 130). In book 7 of the Confessions, Augustine famously denies that evil exists. His argument (book 7, chapter 12) takes the form of a reductio ad absurdum. On examination, however, Augustine's argument does not prove to be logically compelling.