Abstract

This dissertation explores one small aspect of Augustine's developing doctrine of God: his answer to how one constructs a metaphysically nondualistic framework expressing the Catholic faith, such that evil is neither substantial nor attributable to God. It argues that Augustine's dialogue with Zeno the Stoic's definition of perception in the Cassiciacum dialogues, De Immortalitate Animae, De Magistro, and De Vera Religione exhibits his resolution of the conundrum. Augustine's denouement of the dilemma is, in many ways, prerequisite to his formulating his specifically Trinitarian teaching, though the seeds of the latter are undeniably present, even as early as De Ordine and the first books of De Musica. Broadly speaking, only as Augustine arrives at a one-principle framework sufficiently pure to do justice to the one God does his metaphysical thought shift predominantly toward God's triunity; for it is only within such a context that a triune First Being is consistent with Nicene belief. ;Chapter one delineates the parameters of the problem Augustine faced in conceiving a metaphysically nondualistic framework adequate to Nicene belief by underscoring the subtle but important difference between Ambrose and Plotinus on the question of evil. The Manichees alone are often assumed to be Augustine's primary dialogue partners on this question. But the author thinks such a view is incomplete. ;Chapter two briefly states the relevance of Stoic thought to the problematic chapter one defines. And chapters three through eight, respectively, address Contra Academicos, De Beata Vita, De Ordine, Soliloquia and De Immortalitate Animae, De Magistro and De Vera Religione, showing how the foregoing texts comprise a unified effort to conceive a one-principle metaphysical framework sufficiently, pure to accommodate the further tenets of Nicene belief. ;The dissertation assumes the normativeness of the Nicene faith for Augustine from his Cassiciacum retirement in 386 throughout his subsequent writing career, though it acknowledges other possible starting points and does not dispute additional pervasive, significant, complementary influences. It presumes Augustine's existentially grounded use of philosophy for elucidating and assimilating the faith. And it takes special cognizance of Bernard Lonergan's inquiry method and four guiding methodological precepts