Augustinian Theodicy:

1. For St Augustine, God is the basis of all Goodness as God just is Goodness in virtue of Himself. God, as such, cannot be the primary cause of evil for all of the Cosmos is, according to St Augustine, good just as God is good in Himself. Rather, for St Augustine, evil finds its origins in the natural world, specifically where goodness is disordered (La. privatio boni) according to its natural role within the divine schema of being. Evil as such for St Augustine isnt simply a privation of good but rather a privation of good according to the telos of a particular being in light of the divine hierarchy of being. 2. For St Augustine, the Cosmos is hierarchically ordered. As such, there are gradations of being which entails that there are more significant beings than others (e.g., the animal over the plant; the rational animal over the irrational animal, etc.). Nevertheless, each being is considered perfect in light of its own nature, though the lesser types of being cannot be considered as qualitatively evil in comparison due to their nature being substantially inferior. Rather, these beings must simply be considered as qualitatively lesser. For St Augustine, all being is good granted God is good and what He created is likewise good. 3. For Augustine evil is secondary and dependent and negative and privative. That is to say that nothing evil exists in virtue of itself but only in another being. Evil therefore has its source in good, as all being is good. St Augustine can thus be said to identify being with goodness. 4. Granted all being subsists hierarchically according to St Augustine it can be said that the existence of demons and the devil can be considered good insofar as their existence substantially balances the scale of the created order of all being. 5. Seemingly, St Augustine admits that beings are qualitatively good in light of the various characteristics that inhere as categories intrinsic to their nature (e.g., order, measure and form). For St Augustine, creaturely goodness consists in these three categories. Hence, for St Augustine, goodness consists in substances and essences rather than in an I-Thou relationship between persons. 6. For St Augustine, turning away from the highest Good (i.e., God) is to turn to some lower good and thus evil. Though the object being turned toward, being of lesser being than God, is not evil in virtue of itself. Rather, that act of turning is in itself evil.