Description
When citing Augustine’s Confessions, you should give both the book number and the chapter number. There are no line numbers to worry about. The chapter numbers are the bold numbers at the start of most paragraphs. Since the edition we are using has Roman numerals for book numbers, we will use Roman numerals, too.
FOR EXAMPLE:
“And what did it profit me that all the books I could procure of the so-called liberal arts I, the vile slave of vile affections, read by myself and understood? And I delighted in them, but knew not whence came all that therein was true or certain.” (Confessions Book IV, Chapter 16).
TOPIC:
One of the serious intellectual challenges to Christianity is known as the Problem of Evil. According to Christian beliefs, God is omnipotent (all powerful), omniscient (all knowing), and omnibenevolent (all good or all loving).
If God knows everything that’s going to happen, has the power to prevent human suffering, and wants only good things for us, why does suffering happen anyway? Theodicy is the attempt to reconcile these divine characteristics with the existence of evil in this world.
What is Augustine’s theodicy? Do you think he is able to resolve the Problem of Evil?