Specifically, as with all Christian theodicies, Augustine has the puzzle of trying to explain how evil could come from good. That is, if the world was primordially perfect how could it fall?
In pondering Augustine's answers, my attention came to focus upon the assumption that creates all this difficulty. Specifically, the conviction that the world was created good. This assertion, what some have described as "original blessing", is a bedrock Christian commitment. All the world, and all of us, are fundamentally good. And yet, this is the very conviction that creates what we call "the problem of evil."
More simply, Christians are wedded to two claims about the world:
- The world and humanity were created good.
- Evil exists.
The "problem of evil" is the tension that exists between these two claims. For if you deny either claim the "problem of evil" goes away. This is what causes Augustine fits in The City of God. It would be much easier if Christians could say that evil always existed, that evil is a constitutive part of the cosmos. But that's not what Christians believe. Nor do Christians deny the existence of evil. So we're forced to live in-between these two convictions.
In short, it's the Christian commitment to "original blessing" that creates the "problem of evil." What's interesting here is how a lot of the Christians who struggle most with the "problem of evil" are the same Christians who embrace and preach "original blessing" over against pessimistic views of both humanity and creation. Original blessing is used to ground both human dignity and creation care. As they should! But many of these same Christians miss how one of their deeply held convictions (original blessing) is implicated in their downstream faith struggles (the problem of evil).
Like Augustine, we refuse to reject original blessing. Original blessing is one of the most beautiful ideas gifted to us from Genesis, that God looked upon world and saw that it was "good" and that humanity was "very good." But if we rightly embrace original blessing we will inherit its theological implications. So if you're struggling with "the problem of evil", just remember that those struggles flow from a very beautiful religious conviction that isn't worth letting go.
