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St Augustine Views on Suffering |
“Augustine thought humanity was originally perfect… but Adam and Eve disobeyed God, and introduced sin to the world… and humanity had to deal with the consequences.” “St Augustine, argued God allows our bad actions since preventing them would undermine our free will, the value of which outweighs its ill effects.” |
St Augustine, was Bishop of Hippo (now known as Algeria), from 396 to 430 (BBC, 2009). He was a Catholic Bishop and a philosopher, whose teachings and deductions drawn on suffering shaped the Catholic Church’s ideas to what they are today (Spark Notes, 2013). According to Augustine, human suffering exists because of the sins committed by the first parents, Adam and Eve. An article written by the BBC (2009), a reliable news source, stated that “Augustine thought humanity was originally perfect… but Adam and Eve disobeyed God, and introduced sin to the world… and humanity had to deal with the consequences.” This conclusion formed by Augustine made the idea of suffering in the world easier for Catholics to understand, and answered the question of why a benevolent God would allow suffering to exist (BBC, 2009). Another key idea of Augustine’s philosophical ideas on the concept of suffering was free will. He believed that suffering exists because humans have free will and argued that God does not allow evil to exist so much as humanity chooses it by their actions, deeds, and words (Spark Notes, 2013). According to David Bane (2010), a philosophy professor, “St Augustine, argued God allows our bad actions since preventing them would undermine our free will, the value of which outweighs its ill effects.” It is evident that the teachings of St Augustine corroborates the concept of suffering in the Catholic Church, and teaches that suffering is the result of humanity and their wrong-doings.
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