Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-g7gxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-17T15:18:50.016Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Augustine's rejection of the free-will defence: an overview of the late Augustine's theodicy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 August 2007

JESSE COUENHOVEN
JESSE COUENHOVEN
Affiliation:
Department of Humanities and Augustinian Traditions, Villanova University, 800 Lancaster Avenue, Villanova, PA 19085
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Augustine is commonly considered the greatest early proponent of what we call the free-will defence, but this idea is deeply misleading, as Augustine grew increasingly dissatisfied with the view from an early point in his career, and his later explorations of the implications of his doctrines of sin and grace led him to reject free-will theodicies altogether. As a compatibilist, however, he continued to reject the idea that God is responsible for the advent of evil. His alternative was his often misunderstood claim that the primal sin had a ‘deficient’ cause, together with a version of what Alvin Plantinga has nominated the ‘felix culpa’ approach. Thus, Augustine was actually the free-will defence's first major Christian detractor, and by the end of his career he had become its greatest critic.

Type
Research Article
Information
Religious Studies , Volume 43 , Issue 3 , September 2007 , pp. 279 - 298
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2007

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Adams, Marilyn McCord (1999) Horrendous Evils and the Goodness of God (Ithaca NY: Cornell University Press).Google Scholar
Augustine, St (1953) On Free Choice of the Will. 395/6, in Burleigh, J. H. S. (ed.) Augustine: Earlier Writings (Philadelphia PA: The Westminster Press).Google Scholar
Augustine, St (1972) Concerning the City of God Against the Pagans. 413, Henry Bettenson (tr.) (New York NY: Penguin Books).Google Scholar
Augustine, St (1991) The Trinity, 400–420. in John, E.Rotelle, OSA (ed.) Edmund Hill OP (tr.) The Works of Saint Augustine, vol. 5 (Brooklyn NY: New City Press).Google Scholar
Augustine, St (1993) Enchiridion, 423, in Schaff, Philip (ed.) Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, vol. 3 (Grand Rapids MI: Eerdmans).Google Scholar
Augustine, St (1997a) The Grace of Christ and Original Sin, 418, in Rotelle OSA, John E. (ed.), Roland J. Teske SJ (tr.) The Works of Saint Augustine, I/23 (Hyde Park NY: New City Press).Google Scholar
Augustine, St (1997b) Nature and Grace, 415, in Rotelle, (ed.), Teske (tr.) The Works of Saint Augustine, I/23.Google Scholar
Augustine, St (1997c) The Punishment and Forgiveness of Sins and the Baptism of Little Ones, 411–412. in Rotelle, (ed.), Teske (tr.) Answer to the Pelagians, I, The Works of Saint Augustine, I/23.Google Scholar
Augustine, St (1997d) The Spirit and the Letter, 412–413. in Rotelle, (ed.), Teske (tr.) The Works of Augustine, I/23.Google Scholar
Augustine, St (1998a) Answer to Julian, 421, in Rotelle, (ed.), Teske (tr.) Answer to the Pelagians, II, The Works of Saint Augustine, I/24.Google Scholar
Augustine, St (1998b) Answer to the Two Letters of the Pelagians, 420–421. in Rotelle, (ed.), Treske (tr.) Answer to the Pelagians, II, The Works of Saint Augustine, I/24.Google Scholar
Augustine, St (1998c) Marriage and Desire, 418–421. in Rotelle>, (ed.), Teske (tr.) Answer to the Pelagians, II, The Works of Saint Augustine, I/24.Google Scholar
Augustine, St (1999a) The Gift of Perseverance, 427–428. in Rotelle, (ed.), Treske (tr.) Answer to the Pelagians, IV, The Works of Augustine, I/26.Google Scholar
Augustine, St (1999b) The Predestination of the Saints, 427–428. in Rotelle, (ed.), Treske (tr.) Answer to the Pelagians, IV, The Works of Saint Augustine. I/26.Google Scholar
Augustine, St (1999c) Rebuke and Grace, 426–427. in Rotelle, (ed.), Treske (tr.) Against the Pelagians, IV, The Works of Saint Augustine, I/26.Google Scholar
Augustine, St (1999d) Unfinished Work in Answer to Julian, 430, in Rotelle, (ed.), Treske (tr.) Answer to the Pelagians, III, The Works of Saint Augustine, I/25.Google Scholar
Augustine, St (2001) Letters 156–210. in Rotelle, (ed.), Treske (tr.) The Works of Saint Augustine, II/1.Google Scholar
Babcock, William S. (1988) ‘Augustine on sin and moral agency’, Journal of Religious Ethics, 16, 28–55.Google Scholar
Baker, Lynne Rudder (2003) ‘Why Christians should not be libertarians: an Augustinian challenge’, Faith and Philosophy, 20, 360–378.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brown, Peter (1969) Augustine of Hippo: A Biography (Berkeley CA: University of California Press).Google Scholar
Brown, Robert F. (1978). ‘The first evil will must be incomprehensible: a critique of Augustine’, Journal of the American Academy of Religion, 46, 315–329.Google Scholar
Burnaby, John (1938) Amor Dei: A Study of the Religion of St Augustine (London: Hodder & Stoughton).Google Scholar
Burns, J. Patout (1980) The Development of Augustine's Doctrine of Operative Grace (Paris: Etudes Augustiniennes).Google Scholar
Burns, J. Patout (1988) ‘Augustine on the origin and progress of evil’, Journal of Religious Ethics, 16, 9–27.Google Scholar
Burrell, David B. (1993) Freedom and Creation in Three Traditions (Notre Dame IN: University of Notre Dame Press).Google Scholar
Chappell, T. D. J. (1995) Aristotle and Augustine on Freedom: Two Theories of Freedom, Voluntary Action, and Akrasia (New York NY: St Martin's Press).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Couenhoven, Jesse (2005) ‘Augustine's doctrine of original sin’, Augustinian Studies, 36, 359–396.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Evans, G. R. (1982) Augustine on Evil (NY: Cambridge University Press).Google Scholar
Gilbert, Neal W. (1963) ‘The concept of will in early Latin philosophy’, Journal of the History of Philosophy, 1, 17–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Greer, Rowan A. (1996) ‘Augustine's transformation of the free will defence’, Faith and Philosophy, 13, 471–486.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Greer, Rowan A. (2001) Christian Life and Christian Hope: Raids on the Inarticulate (New York NY: The Crossroad Publishing Company).Google Scholar
Harrison, Carol (2000) Augustine: Christian Truth and Fractured Humanity (Oxford: Oxford University Press).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kirwan, Christopher (1989) Augustine (London: Routledge).Google Scholar
MacDonald, Scott (1999) ‘Primal sin’, in Matthews, Gareth (ed.) The Augustinian Tradition (Los Angeles CA: University of California Press), 110–139.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
O'Daly, Gerard (1989) ‘Predestination and freedom in Augustine's ethics’, in Vesey, Godfrey (ed.) The Philosophy in Christianity (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), 85–98.Google Scholar
Plantinga, Alvin (2004) ‘Supralapsarianism, or “O felix culpa”’, in Inwagen, Peter van (ed.) Christian Faith and the Problem of Evil (Grand Rapids MI: Eerdmans), 1–25.Google Scholar
Rist, John M. (1969) ‘Augustine on free will and predestination’, Journal of Theological Studies, 20, 420–447.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rist, John M. (1994) Augustine: Ancient Thought Baptized (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rogers, Katherin (2004) ‘Augustine's compatibilism’, Religious Studies, 40, 415–435.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rombs, Ronnie J. (2006) Saint Augustine and the Fall of the Soul: Beyond O'Connell and His Critics (Washington DC: Catholic University of America Press).Google Scholar
Smith, Jonathan Z. (ed.) (1995) The HarperCollins Dictionary of Religion (San Francisco CA: HarperSanFrancisco).Google Scholar
Stump, Eleonore (2001) ‘Augustine on free will’, in Eleonore, Stump and Norman, Kretzman (eds) Cambridge Companion to Augustine (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), 124–147.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
TeSelle, Eugene (1994) ‘Serpent, Eve, and Adam: Augustine and the exegetical tradition’, in Joseph, SJ, Earl, SJ, and Roland, SJ (eds) Augustine: resbyter Factus Sum. Collectanea Augustiniana (New York: Peter Lang), 341–361.Google Scholar
TeSelle, Eugene (2002) ‘Exploring the inner conflict: Augustine's sermons on Romans 7 and 8’, in Daniel, Patte and Eugene, TeSelle (eds) Engaging Augustine on Romans (Harrisburg PA: Trinity Press International), 111–146.Google Scholar
Wetzel, James (1992) Augustine and the Limits of Virtue (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Williams, Rowan (2002) ‘Insubstantial evil’, in Robert, Dodaro and George, Lawless (eds) Augustine and his Critics (New York NY: Routledge), 105–123.Google Scholar
Wolterstorff, Nicholas (1996) ‘Barth on evil’, Faith and Philosophy, 13, 584–608.CrossRefGoogle Scholar