The Happy Life; Answer to Skeptics; Divine Providence and the Problem of Evil; Soliloquies

Introduction

INTRODUCTION DN THE HISTORY of human thought and achievement St. Augustine occupies a special place. His intellectual development is intimately connected with the personal circumstances of his eventful life. It would, in fact, be difficult to find throughout the vast history of human thought a personality in whom the bond between mind and life has been more dominant and decisive. It is not surprising, therefore, that traces of Augustine's arduous and impassioned quest for truth should be dearly discernible in his first philosophical writings after his conversion . His Answer to Skeptics (Contra Academicos? is a sound refutation of universal skepticism, the last and most serious error which he encountered since the desire of immortal wisdom had been first awakened in him by the reading of Cicero's Hortensius. Similarly, in The Happy Life (De beata vita) Augustine examines the vital problem of man's longing for that perfect happiness which can be found only in God, the highest Good. De ordine, too, receives much of its inspiration from the saint's personal history. While the dualistic solution of the problem of evil contributed in no small measure to Augustine 's adherence to the Manichaean sect for nine years, it was his abiding belief in a provident God that alone sustained him when disappointment and disillusionment had all but made him despair of finding the truth. Little wonder, then, that as a catechumen at Cassiciacum he should have made Divine Providence and the fact of evil the respective themes I The Contra Academicos was the first of these works to be begun, but De beata vita and the first book of De ordine were written before its completion. 229 230 SAINT AUGUSTINE of one of his earliest works and should have vindicated therein the existence of a divine and universal order which embraces both good and evil. De ardine, divided into two books, was written in the year 386, the year of Augustine's conversion to Christianity. It comprises the third of four dialogues composed while he was living in seclusion at the villa of Cassiciacum, whither he had retired shortly after his wonderful conversion at Milan. The purpose and plan of the dialogue, as well as several interesting circumstances connected with its composition, are to be found within the work itself. That information is supplemented by the following from the Retractationes-the general review of his own works which Augustine wrote shortly before his death in 430. 'During the same interval,' he writes, 'and in the course of composing the books Contra Academicos, I wrote also two De ordine. In these books is treated the important question of whether the order of God's providence embraces everything good and everything evil' (1.3 ). De ardine is dedicated to a friend, Zenobius, at whose request and insistence Augustine planned it in a definite form. The points of discussion converge on the problem of order in the world; they had emerged from previous conversations which Zenobius and Augustine had held on the same subject. Augustine had failed to satisfy him during those conversations , either on account of the inherent difficulty of the problem , or, as it seems more likely, because of lack of time (otiosus) for sufficient explanation. To allay the disquietude of his friend, Augustine had promised a more thorough treatment of the subject. The fulfillment of this promise is the present work, De ordine. For several reasons De ordine holds a prominent place DIVINE PROVIDENCE AND THE PROBLEM OF EVIL 231 among Augustine's works. Written during the very year of his conversion to the Christian faith, it is invaluable for the intimate revealment of his way of thinking during that critical period of his life, the Christian character of which was at one time the subject of a serious controversy.2 Probably no other work belonging to this period gives a truer picture of the directive influences in Augustine's intellectual development or determines more clearly the mutual relation of these same influences. For, notwithstanding the presence of elements that suggest a Platonic or neo-Platonic origin, thoughts distinctly and exclusively Christian are not only clearly discernible , but predominate throughout the entire dialogue. However, De ordine possesses much more than a mere historical value as a landmark in the personal development of this great thinker. Within its narrow limits Augustine has succeeded in laying the foundation of a grand philosophical structure-a structure that has been...