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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
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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

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