Faith and Knowledge

Augustine’s Christian theology has also adopted the framework of Plotinus. For Augustine God is the ultimate of being and goodness. However, in one aspect regarding gradations of being Augustine significantly diverges from Plotinus, namely he does not hold matter to be evil. On the contrary, the whole creation, including the material world, is good, though capable of being corrupted. In fact, this is one of the central themes of Augustine’s thought: the whole creation is good.

 

The Problem of Evil


Theologian: Augustine of Hippo, Philosopher: Plotinus


1. Background

-Augustine failed to have the answer of the origin of evil from Cicero, Manichaeism.

-He tried to use the Neo-Platonic doctrine to explain the problem of evil.


2. Augustine’s explanation of the problem of Evil

a. The nature of evil; The evil is a privation of all good, so the evil is absolutely nothing.

b. The origin of evil: Augustine pointed that the free choice of the will is the reason of human being’s committing sin and suffering


3. The Premises to get to the solution

-‘God is all-good and all-powerful.

-The whole creation is good; “God created good creatures.” (Conf. 7, 5, 7)


4. Influence of Neo-Platonism on Augustine’s Theodicy

a. Understanding of God and evil in Neo-Platonism

-The Supreme Being, the ultimate One, is in one of its aspects the God; and evil has no place or part in it.àAugustine: The nature of evil; the evil is privation of all good, so the evil is absolutely nothing.

b. Hierarchical system of Plotinus and Augustine’s adoption:-Plotinus system begins with the One, the supreme transcendent principle, which is immaterial and impersonal. The One is the ground of all being and source of all values. à there proceeded by emanation Mind (nous)àthe next is the World Soul(psyche)àthe lowest level; Nature (Evangelical dictionary of theology, p. 821)

-Augustine: “all natures, then, inasmuch as they are, and have therefore a rank and species of their own, and a kind of internal harmony, are certainly good” (City of God)



5. Evaluation

- The “privation” theory is not satisfactory. If God created all and governs all things, the privations as well as the actualities are within his plan.

-Augustine rejects the ancient Platonic, neo-Platonic, Gnostic and Manichaean prejudice against matter and lays the foundation for Christian naturalism that rejoices in this world which God created in His bountiful goodness.



Genesis 1:31: “God saw all that had made, and it was very good” 

“But you had not yet ‘lightened my darkness’ (Psalms 17:29)”-Confession, 7. 1.2.

Doctrine of Scripture

1. The bible is the revelation of God.

‘Revelation is primarily the Word of God disclosed, which is essentially Jesus the Christ, the Word incarnate. And revelation is the Bible as “the word of God written.” ‘ (Grenz, p.511, Karl Barth’s definition)
‘God’s manifestation of himself to particular persons at definite times and places, enabling those persons to enter into a redemptive relationship with him’, it is special revelation. Why was special revelation needs? Because ‘the humans had lost the relationship of favor which they had with God prior the fall’.(Erickson, p.201) ‘The insufficiency of general revelation therefore required the special revelation. The special revelation, however, requires the general revelation as well. Without the general revelation, humans would not possess the concepts regarding God that enable them to know and understand the God of the special revelation. Special revelation builds on general revelation.’((Erickson, p.203)
According to Erickson (p.203~206), there are three styles of Special Revelation. 1) The personal nature of special revelation. A personal God presents himself to persons.(reveals his name to persons, personal covenants with individuals, personal experience with God) 2) The anthropic nature of Special Revelation. Revelation came in forms that are part of ordinary, everyday human experience.(especially incarnation, he came as a human) 3) The analogical nature of Special Revelation. It employs analogical language, which is midway between univocal and equivocal language.
 ‘The modalities that God uses include historical events, divine speech, and the incarnation of God in Christ.(the most complete modality)’(Erickson, p.200). Revelation is not propositional, but it is personal.


2. The bible is inspired by God.

‘By inspiration of Scripture we mean that supernatural influence of the Holy Spirit on the Scripture writers which rendered their writings an accurate record of the revelation or which resulted in what they wrote actually being the Word of God.’(Erickson, p.225)

3. The bible is inerrant.


4. The bible has the authority of God.

Doctrine of Theodicies: The Problem of Evil

Traditionally, the problem of evil is framed in a four step argument: 1) God is good. 2) A good God would not permit suffering or evil. 3) Yet suffering and evil are observed in the world. 4) Therefore a good God does not exist. (p. 224, McGrath)

Some approaches to theodicy rest on redefining the categories in which the dilemma is stated. Irenaeus of Lyons represents a major element within Greek patristic thought, which regards human nature as a potentiality, rather than a fully developed actuality.(John Hick developed this idea, he emphasized that human beings are created incomplete) But this approach seems merely to encourage acquiescence in the presence of evil in the world, without giving any moral direction or stimulus to resist and overcome it. (p. 224, McGrath)
For Augustine, creation and redemption were the work of on and the same God. God created the world good, meaning that it was free from the contamination of evil. Evil is a direct consequence of the misuse of human freedom. God created humanity with the freedom to choose god or evil. He located the origin of evil in satanic temptation. And the satan is a fallen angel, who was originally created good.
Karl Barth rejected a priori notions of omnipotence in favor of a belief in the triumph of God’s grace over unbelief, evil, and suffering. He describes evil as das Nichtige – a mysterious power of ”nothingness”, it is that which contradicts the will of God.
Alvin Plantinga, summarized that – free will is morally important. And if human beings were forced to do nothing but good, that would represent a denial of human free will. God must bring into being the best possible world that he is able to do. God must create a world with free will. It must therefore follow that God must create a world with free will. God is not responsible if human beings choose to do evil, since god is operating under self-imposed constraints that mean God will not compel human beings to do good. (p. 226, McGrath)

Augustine of Hippo who provided the definitive statement of a nondualist theology, which had such a major impact on western thought. – Everything that exists owes that existence to God.


There is no alternative source or origin of existence. Everything that exists was created good by a good God. The evil that exists within the world is not to be thought of as something positive and real, possessing its own distinct substance. Rather, it is to be thought of as a “lack of goodness”. He uses the image of a dormant seed as an analogy for this process. God embeds seeds(ratines seminales, seed bearing reasons) God created the world complete with a series of dormant powers, which were actualized at appropriate moments through divine providence.(p. 218, McGrath) God made all things simultaneously, while envisaging that the various kinds of living things make their appearance gradually over time-as they were meant to by their creator. The “seed” implies that the original creation contained within it the potentialities for all the living kinds that would subsequently emerge. (p. 219, McGrath)



The general Greek understanding of the origins of the world(platonist worldview) – God is to be thought of as an architect, who ordered pre-existent matter. This idea was taken up by Most Gnostic writers, who were here followed by a few early Christian theologians such as Theophilus of Antioch and Justin Martyr. They professed a belief of in pre-existent matter, which was shaped into the world in the act of creation. Creation was not “from nothing(ex nihilo)”; rather, it was to be seen as an act of construction. The existence of evil in the world was thus to be explained on the basis of the intractability of this pre-existent matter. (p. 219, McGrath)

But several major Christian writers of the 2nd and 3rd centuries argued that everything required to be created out of nothing.(Irenaeus, Tertullian ‘the world depended on God for its existence.’, Augustine)
The doctrine of God as creator has several major implications, 1) a distinction must be drawn between God and the creation, while at the same time to affirm that it is God’s creation. 2) Creation implies God’s authority over the world. The doctrine of creation leads to the idea of human stewardship of the creation.(it contrasted with a secular notion of human ownership) 3) the doctrine of God as creator implies the original goodness of creation.(Gen 1:10, 18, 21…) 4) Creation as recounted in the book of Gen. implies that human beings are created in the image of God.(p. 220-221, McGrath)
There are several models of God as creator. The 1st one is widely used by early Christian writers. Emanation was used to clarify the relation between God and the world. This image of creation suggests that the creation of the world can be regarded as an overflowing of the creative energy of God. There is a natural or organic connection between God and the creation. This model has two weaknesses, the image of a sun radiating light implies an involuntary emanation but the Christian tradition has emphasized that the act of creation rests upon a prior decision on the part of God to create, which this model cannot adequately express. Thus, the idea of a personal God, expressing a personality both in the very act of creation and the subsequent creation itself, is difficult to convey by this image. 2nd model is the ‘construction’. God as a master builder, deliberately constructing the world. The weakness is that this portrays creation as involving pre-existent matter. But it includes the fundamental theme of ordering. And the 3rd, Artistic expression. Many Christian writers speak of creation as the “handiwork of God,” comparing it to a work of art which is beautiful in itself, as well as expressing the personality of its creator.(Jonathan Edwards) this model also could easily lead to the idea of creation from pre-existent matter.(Sculptor) But this weaknesses has a possibility of thinking about creation from nothing; the author and the composer. (p. 221-222, McGrath)

Doctrine of Creation

“Establishment of order” is generally represented in two different ways. 1. Creation is associated with the image of a potter working clay into a recognizably ordered structure. 2. Creation concerns conflict with a series of chaotic forces.(dragon or another monster) (p. 217, McGrath)

The central issue relating to the doctrine of creation which had to be debated in the first period of Christian theology was that of dualism.(p. 217, McGrath) Irenaeus of Lyons opposed this idea, which argued for the existence of two gods: a supreme god(NT’s the redeemer God) and a lesser deity(OT’s God). First one is the source of the invisible spiritual world, and the other one is created the world visible, material things. Also, Manichaeism has a Gnostic worldview, it is strongly dualist. It sets up a fundamental tension between the spiritual realm(good) and the material realm.(evil) The dualist notion of a good realm of the invisible and spiritual, and an evil realm of the visible and material is excluded by the Council of Nicea(325).

Jonathan Edwards and the Christian Education of today’s young people – David Jull, CEJ September 2006, Vol.49, No.2, p 15~21


Most Churches know that ‘teaching children the fundamentals of the Christian faith is important and value some sort of Sunday morning training program, such as Sunday School lessons, to do that. It is in the application of this ideal that two major trends emerge’. 1) Due to the lack of young yet committed families, feel that they are incapable of implementing the Sunday school ideal of having dedicated adult teachers for various age ranges of children. 2) To incorporate a significant element of worship into the children’s program so that it becomes an authentic worship service, equivalent to, though different from, the adult worship service.
(p.15)



Today’s church can get ‘valuable insights that can still be learned From Jonathan Edwards’. He pointed out that ‘children have the need and ability to develop and relate socially. If that ability and need is present, then they have the capacity to relate to God and grow in their relationship with him. They need and benefit from worship’. (p.16) As much as he valued children’s worship session, he believed that they needed guidance and supervision. (P.17) And He organized training and being frank with children. He created and respected opportunities for spiritual exploration and worship. And he took a time for frank discussions with the children about doctrine. (p. 20)



These key ideas – creating space for children’s worship, innovative techniques that are consistent with the worshipping community’s goals, the de-emphasis on long discourses with the emphasis instead being placed on the experience of worship, and the active involvement of the senior pastor in requiring laypeople to be involved in children’s teaching – have stood the test of time and should be incorporated into any children’s church strategy. (p. 21-22)


I agree that the ‘valuable insights that can still be learned From Jonathan Edwards’. Through his observation and study will be helpful to church community. I was surprised that the child boy can really pray to God wholeheartedly. As a minister for kids(I lead this group only just 4 month long), I have never seen to pray seriously like that boy. I think it is nearly miracle. It was very interesting story. And also it has given to me a hope and expectation. Children’s teaching has a special meaning to me, above mentioned by Jonathan Edwards. And I think Training of doctrine is useful for my children group.

St. Patrick: The Irish Legend_Movie Review






A young Patrick attended to a druid worship. He was kidnapped by the Irish pirates. The barbarians dragged him aboard a boat bound for the east coast of Ireland. He was sold to a cruel man. He became a slave. Enduring many hardships, he eventually finds comports. Finally he met the Lord. Many times he was praying alone in the hill where it was the most lonely and harsh place. And God respond to his prayer, after several years of slavery, Patrick received a supernatural message. A mysterious voice said that he can return to his homeland soon. Before long, Patrick escaped back to England. But in the party at his home, he received a message supernaturally, the Irishmen asked to him a help. So Patrick became a priest to go to the Ireland. At last, he became a bishop of Ireland, he can return to the Ireland.

In the Ireland, Patrick did a lot of miraculous works, many people became a Christian. He had fight with a superstition belief during in his life. His aim firstly to convert high ranking official and king. There was a lot of obstacles but Patrick endured so that he saves the Irish people. He was one of the first great missionaries who brought the gospel beyond the boundaries of Roman Empire. God’s gospel expended by the first great missionaries and they have a lot of miraculous stories, that point is very interesting to me. New Testaments showed a lot of miracles by Paul and Peter, they also a missionary. Gospel, mission and miracles, it shows that God still alive and he wants to save his people. And as like the St. Patrick, God take care of his servants faithfully now. God is good all the time.