Confessions

by Augustine of Hippo

And I said, “Here is God, and here is what God created. God is good, vastly and incomparably more excellent than creatures. But this good God created good things, and see how he encompasses and fills them. Where then did evil come from? From where and by what path did it invade creation? What is its root and seed? “Or does evil not exist at all? Why then do we fear and avoid what does not exist? Or if our fear is in vain, that fear is surely itself an evil by which the heart is disturbed and tormented for no reason. And the more we fear this non-existent evil, the greater the evil is—and we do fear it. So either there is evil that we fear, or the very fact that we fear is itself an evil. “How, then, is there evil, given that God is good and made all these things good? A greater—indeed the greatest—Good made these lesser goods, and yet both the Creator and all created things are good. So where does evil come from? Did he perhaps make them from some matter that was evil, which he formed and ordered, yet left something in it that he did not turn to good? Why would that be? Did he lack the power to turn and transform the whole of matter so that no evil remained? But he is all-powerful. “Finally, why did he will to make something from matter rather than using his omnipotence to bring it about that there was no matter at all? Or indeed how could matter exist contrary to his will? Or if it was eternal, why did he allow it to exist through the infinite reaches of time past, and on...