Augustine
City of God
Creation ex Nihilo
"Orthodox" Christian Beliefs
Trinity
Filioque Controversy
From where did the holy spirit emerge?
From the father
From the father and the son
Metaphysically
Evil is a "Privation Boni"
Morally
Evil is a Perversion
Sin as concupiscentia
an "absence of good"
Inordinate desire
PRIDE
There is an order in nature: "The Great Chain of Being"
Hierarchy, like Timaeus
Dolphins
Great Apes
Puppies
Humans
Jellyfish
Angels
Trees
God
Ice Cream
Matter itself isn't evil, because God created everything (from nothing) and God is good
Rocks
Mosaic Theory
All things in their place
Apparent Evils
You need the puke green just as much as the shimmering emerald
God's antithetical plan
Not actually evil, we just don't (or can't) understand it
Without all the colors, you can't make up the entire picture
Original Sin
Distortion/Corruption of our human nature
What is evil?
NOTHING.
Evil is not a substance at all
Evil is a privatio boni
It is a lack of the good that is supposed to be there
Evil is a corruption
What is a rip?
The Neverending Story
"The Nothing"
The big bad
The death of imagination
Without imagination, we are locked into the world as it is. No change is possible
Will is neutral
You can direct yourself towards the right things/goods
You can "care" too much about the wrong things/goods
Puppies & Ice Cream > Family = Concupiscentia Sin
Inordinate desire
Caring too much for certain things and not enough for others
In some sense we are born already corrupted, not by guilt but rather by a predisposition to turn towards egoistic activity - we begin already distorted in our very nature
This is where grace comes in
Grace is
a gift
undeserved
not earned
not owed
We have all failed the ethical test
Grace makes us do the good and WANT to do the good for the right reason
election
"Bondage of the will"
Serial Killers
Have a deficiency or perversion/twisting in the will of what you are supposed to be as a human being/ God's will/ desires for you - they are lacking some good/virtue