The Goodness of Creation and the Problem of Evil in Thomas Aquinas

Abstract

This thesis explores Aquinas’s answers to two questions that were – and still are – of central importance for many human beings. What is the reality of evil in a universe created by God and, as such, fundamentally good? And how can such a divinely created universe be perfect? Expanding from the Neoplatonists to the crucial contributions of Aristotle and grounding his reasoning on Augustine’s authority, Aquinas conceives the original sin – the privation of original justice – as the root of evil. Furthermore, Aquinas’s conception of evil as malum est privatio boni, complemented with the notion of due good, implies the affirmation that “every evil is founded in some good”. He distinguishes between natural evil and moral evil but denies the possibility of pure evil. In examining the nature of the good, Aquinas establishes its foundations: good and being are identical but good adds a degree of desirability, carrying the nature of a final cause because every substance desires its own perfection. Aquinas’s conclusion is astonishing: this universe would be less perfect without defective things because its perfection is grounded on the heterogeneity and diversity of beings, which better represent God’s goodness. In our contemporary world, our spirituality may rely upon the order, in Aquinas’s understanding, manifested in the variety and interdependence of beings, and that may lead us to a new awakening and a transformative relationship with Creation.