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9. Wherefore, when it is asked what we ought to
believe in matters of religion, the answer is not to
be sought in the exploration of the nature of things
[rerum natura], after the manner of those whom the
Greeks called "physicists."(20) Nor should we be
dismayed if Christians are ignorant about the
properties and the number of the basic elements of
nature, or about the motion, order, and deviations of
the stars, the map of the heavens, the kinds and
nature of animals, plants, stones, springs, rivers,
and mountains; about the divisions of space and time,
about the signs of impending storms, and the myriad
other things which these "physicists" have come to
understand, or think they have. For even these men,
gifted with such superior insight, with their ardor
in study and their abundant leisure, exploring some
of these matters by human conjecture and others
through historical inquiry, have not yet learned
everything there is to know. For that matter, many of
the things they are so proud to have discovered are
more often matters of opinion than of verified
knowledge.
For the Christian, it is enough to believe that
the cause of all created things, whether in heaven or
on earth, whether visible or invisible, is nothing
other than the goodness of the Creator, who is the
one and the true God.(21) Further, the Christian
believes that nothing exists save God himself and
what comes from him; and he believes that God is
triune, i.e., the Father, and the Son begotten of the
Father, and the Holy Spirit proceeding from the same
Father, but one and the same Spirit of the Father and
the Son.
10. By this Trinity, supremely and equally and
immutably good, were all things created. But they
were not created supremely, equally, nor immutably
good. Still, each single created thing is good, and
taken as a whole they are very good, because together
they constitute a universe of admirable beauty.
11. In this universe, even what is called evil,
when it is rightly ordered and kept in its place,
commends the good more eminently, since good things
yield greater pleasure and praise when compared to
the bad things. For the Omnipotent God, whom even the
heathen acknowledge as the Supreme Power over all,
would not allow any evil in his works, unless in his
omnipotence and goodness, as the Supreme Good, he is
able to bring forth good out of evil. What, after
all, is anything we call evil except the privation of
good? In animal bodies, for instance, sickness and
wounds are nothing but the privation of health. When
a cure is effected, the evils which were present
(i.e., the sickness and the wounds) do not retreat
and go elsewhere. Rather, they simply do not exist
any more. For such evil is not a substance; the wound
or the disease is a defect of the bodily substance
which, as a substance, is good. Evil, then, is an
accident, i.e., a privation of that good which is
called health. Thus, whatever defects there are in a
soul are privations of a natural good. When a cure
takes place, they are not transferred elsewhere but,
since they are no longer present in the state of
health, they no longer exist at all.(22) |
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20. |
One of the standard titles of
early Greek philosophical treatises was peri fnsewz, which
would translate into Latin as De rerum natura. This is, in
fact, the title of Lucretius' famous poem, the greatest
philosophical work written in classical Latin. |
21. |
This basic motif appears
everywhere in Augustine's thought as the very foundation of
his whole system. |
22. |
This section (Chs. III and IV) is
the most explicit statement of a major motif which pervades
the whole of Augustinian metaphysics. We see it in his
earliest writings, Soliloquies, 1, 2, and De ordine, II, 7. It
is obviously a part of the Neoplatonic heritage which
Augustine appropriated for his Christian philosophy. The good
is positive, constructive, essential; evil is privative,
destructive, parasitic on the good. It has its origin, not in
nature, but in the will. Cf. Confessions, Bk. VII, Chs. III,
V, XII-XVI; On Continence, 14-16; On the Gospel of John,
Tractate XCVIII, 7; City of God, XI, 17; XII, 7-9. |
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