1. Challenges to the Augustinian theodicy AO1 and AO2
Recap activities on the Augustinian Theodicy

2. Starter
Work in pairs Think of key terms associated with Augustinian Theodicy

3. Key terms The 8 key terms associated with the Augustinian theodicy
Put them in the correct order
Privatio boni
Seminally present
Soul deciding
Punishment
Cross
Free will, Fall
Good creation
Correct order

4. Learning Objective
To evaluate the Augustinian Theodicies Learning Outcomes To know the three versions To explain the strengths To explain and prioritise the weaknesses

5. His influential theodicy rests upon two major assumptions:
Evil did not come from God, since God’s creation
was faultless and perfect.
Evil having come from elsewhere, God is justified
in allowing it to stay.

6. AO1 and AO2 The challenges– check your homework notes
The validity of accounts of Genesis What are the problems with the Genesis account of creation?

7. Scientific problems
There are also scientific problems with this theodicy.
Evolution
Biology

8. The moral contradictions
Hell
Hell appears to be part of the design of the universe (or why have fallen angels?)
This means that God must have already anticipated that the world would go wrong – and have accepted it!

9. Moral Problems - Limited atonement Predestination
God created free agents, knowing full well the risk that he was taking in doing so
Therefore it could be argued that he is partly to blame for their abuse of freewill / freedom
Can be argued that God is guilty of negligence in creating free agents, even if he is not actually committing moral evil himself!

10. Contradiction of perfect order becoming chaotic
Schleiermacher addresses a logical problem with this theodicy.
What are the other two logical problems 
Geological
Biological

11. AO2 Strengths Think of two strengths of the Augustinian theodicy
Read the strengths on page 13 of Booklet 2
Evaluate and prioritise them – which is most and least convincing and why – write on the booklet
Summarise each strength (1a, 1b, 2, 3 and 4)and your evaluation of it in less than 40 words – see below for ideas
Brian Davis – evil is absence of good
The idea that God could have made a different world is confused
Plantinga – No free will = robots
Natural evil necessary for genuine free will
compatible with the God of CT and Bible e.g. predestination
Summarise each strength in one word starting with these letters CARED

12. The Strengths
This theodicy appeals to conservative and fundamental Christians…
This is because it is Biblically based so appeals to those who take a literal interpretation of the creation and fall accounts and accept the authority of the Bible

13. Support for the idea that evil is the result of human free will …
We can argue that if God gives humans genuine free will, this necessarily entails the possibility of moral evil

14. Plantinga argues that although humans sometimes freely choose good, if God had designed them so they always choose good then they would not truly be free
Their choices would be predetermined: like the decision made by robots!

15. God is not responsible for man’s evil....
Allows us to still hold onto the view that God is omnipotent and omnibenevolent
This is because HE is not the source of evil but man is

16. Strengths
C A R E D

17. Strengths or weaknesses
Brian Davis – evil is absence of good
Humans do not have ‘all-encompassing vision’ – Aesthetic Argument
Evolution – world was chaotic – not perfect
Biology – we are not Adams descendants
Hick ‘the idea of an unqualifiedly good creature committing a sin is self-contradictory and unintelligible’. It is not logical. 
The idea that God could have made a different world is confused - Aquinas
Plantinga – No free will = robots
Predestination is morally wrong
Limited atonement – would a just God save some?
Logical contradiction – problems in perfect world
Not logical to claim creatures in a perfect world choose to sin
Free will and determinism are not compatible
The existence of Hell – God anticipated things would go wrong
Natural evil necessary for genuine free will
It is compatible with the God of CT and Bible

18. AO2 ‘The Augustinian Theodicy successfully solves the problem of evil’ Assess this view. 15 marks
Introduction
It is successful
It is not successful
Evaluation
Brian Davis supports the theodicy
This view can be challenged by
It is more convincing to accept

19. Augustinian AO2 mark scheme
No successful theodicy
Criticisms based on concepts relating to logical, scientific and moral error. Concept of hell as part of universe's design implies foreseen flaw, therefore, not made perfect, if humans were created perfect then evil choice would not have been made; scientific evidence disagrees with 'fallen' nature –development of species over time/evolutionary developments, etc. biological impossibilities of all humans being 'seminally present' in Adam; failure to justify 'innocent' and animal suffering; evil not merely absence of good but real entity, etc.
Successful theodicies
Consistent with biblical tradition of wholly good creator God; consistent with accounts in bible of Fall and Atonement; consistent with human experience of cause/effect; responsibility for suffering becomes humanity's rather than God's, etc.. [15 AO2]
Also – CARED