Medieval Philosophy

by Peter S. Adamson

God worshipped in the Abrahamic religions is meant to be all-powerful, all-good, and all-knowing. How then can the world be so full of suffering and evil? Why would He allow this, since He is clearly in a position to put a stop to it and, being good, would certainly want to do so? The standard response from the theist is the “free will defense.” God allows suffering and evil because He must do so, if He is to give freedom to His creatures. In giving us meaningful freedom of choice, He must give us the chance to do wrong; but doing wrong means doing evil, and causing suffering. In the Christian tradition, especially since Augustine, the origins of sin were traced back as far as the first humans. The original sin of Adam and Eve has been passed down to all their descendants, and the human condition is one of congenital weakness. As Oscar Wilde put it, we can resist anything except temptation. In particular, we can resist God’s mercy, literally embodied when He became a human and sacrificed Himself for us. This act of sacrifice has held out a promise of rescue from the state of sin. But, according to Augustine, we were not thereby restored to the even more original sinlessness of Adam and Eve through Christ. Rather, humans have retained a tendency towards evil, and only a further gift of divine grace can give us the strength to be good. We cannot, in other words, merit salvation on our own power, but need God’s help in order to be saved.