Sem. Aldwyn James M.

Delica
Third Year-Class Veritas
Philosophical Article

Beauty as a Devil’s Avenue: Venturing on the Problem of Evil In the Light of St. Thomas
Aquinas and Saint Augustine’s Philosophy on God, Beauty, Evil and Will

Introduction
The problem of evil has been a subject of debate for a very long time. Atheist
philosophers would always delve into the dilemma of evil whenever a concept of God has been
proven to exist. In that sense, several philosophers attempted to attribute the seeming existence
of evil as caused and created by God. Given such accusations, sufferings, pains and the like have
been drawn by them as occurrences God Himself put into play. However, despite these claims,
philosophers such as St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Augustine, and other Christian philosophers were
able to disclose that evil is not something but simply an absence, and primarily does not root nor
originate from God. Thus, supporting and subscribing to the claims of the mentioned
philosophers, evil is truly a privation of good.
However, in a practical sense, evil is something seemingly tangible and experiential.
Though metaphysically speaking, evil is nothingness, it is undeniable that in the empirical world,
evil is felt and experienced. The marks of evil can be viewed through the lens of the senses.
What enables evil to be identified is a particular experience that illustrates an absence of good.
Such experiences would lead to a realization that evil, in some ways, used tangible and actual
objects in order to manifest itself in the concrete world. The devil, who triggers evil to exist,
takes material things to distort and shake human will so that a good will be corrupted.
Nonetheless, it is evident that the devil manipulates tangible things for evil to penetrate the
world.

I. God and Created beings: The Good and the goods

In the perspective of Metaphysics, God is Goodness Himself. God exhausts all the
goodness in Himself since He is the Ipsum Esse Subsitens (He Who Subsist Himself). So holding
to such truth, it is just proper to address God as “The Good”. The title or the attribute of God as
good does not mean God is subject to category or because God is subject to any moral
responsibility but a magnification of the fullness and perfection of the goodness of God. In the
words of Cote, M. 2020, “In The City of God, Augustine presents a view of God, not as a moral
agent acting rightly or wrongly, but rather as the exemplar and perfection of goodness itself. He
states: “God is the supremely good Creator of good natures.” Giving being to the created order
requires the power of being itself, and such a cause bestows goodness in all natures as the source
of all goodness. Augustine further affirms “the nature of God to be, as it is, unchangeable and
absolutely incorruptible, and subject to no injury.” As Pure Act, with no potency for change, the
source and cause of being and goodness itself remains unaffected by the created order” (Cote, M.
2020, 2). In that idea, God is which that sustains all the goodness of the world and thus,
everything that has being is definitely “good”
The disclosure of God as “The Good” implies that all created beings are good by the
virtue that everything is created by God. There is no point in time, space, and beyond that is not
created by and received grace from God. As St. Thomas Aquinas would reiterate, “Every good
thing, that is not its own goodness, is called good by participation. So to speak that an object or
person is evil is a total contradiction to the fact that they are a subject of God’s creation Who is
Goodness Himself from which everything participates in the goodness. In fact, the goodness of a
thing/created being is not simply looked on its material constitution. For instance, a gun is
always associated with death so it is tagged as evil since its intuitive connotation tells us that a
gun kills but this is not the case. The gun is still good in itself because it has a certain purpose
why the gun maker created it. The goodness of created beings is not dependent on the way
society labeled it to be but on the goodness that everything has been created for a certain purpose
which is good and everything that has being is sustained by “The Good”.
II. The Irony of the Devil: Good Yet Wicked
It is now understood that everything that has being and existence shares and is a subject
of God’s creation. Evil in whatever form it may be cannot be a subject of God’s creation since it
is plainly nothingness. However, as Thomas Aquinas explained, part of the hierarchy of beings is
the spiritual created beings. Though evil is non-existent, it does not imply that the devil does not
exist. The devil exists as a spiritual entity. Considering that everything that has being shares to
the goodness of God, it is now come into light that even the devil is created by God. In this case,
St. Augustine described the devil as “good by God’s creation, wicked by his own will”.
Therefore, God intentionally created the devil as good and for the purpose of the good. But in the
same way, a human person has free will, the devil also has that kind of freedom in which they
not take in responsibly.
In the light of the reality of the devil’s existence, it is just logical to think that a privation
of something cannot come into actuality without a triggering factor. Evil in itself cannot be
caused itself to be experienced in the tangible world. There must be something that is higher to
the material world (at least in the vantage point of the hierarchy of being) that schemes
everything to end up evil. In the same manner, human beings act in conformity with their
intentions, spiritual beings such as angels and devils also share that same freedom to act in
accordance with their intention. Taking into account that particular idea, the devil is what played
with humanity to fall into temptations and eventually lead to corruption of the good. Thus, evil
cannot generate evil, so there must be something that manipulates tangible realities to end up
evil.
III. Beauty: An Apparent Actuality of Evil
As a general property of beings, beauty speaks about perfection. It denotes completeness. It
is sometimes associated with goodness because all beautiful are surely good. St. Thomas
Aquinas in the Summa Theologiae once said “Beauty is that which pleases the senses”. So on a
practical note, beauty is what intensifies the desirability of being. A person would not crave to
food not because it is simplygood and itself but what made him crave all the more is that the
food may be pleasing to the senses. In that aspect, beauty is what really captivates the senses.
Also, this has been proven given that human person is a sentient being. Associated to the
goodness of a thing, beauty is what makes it more desirable at least in a realistic view. Going
back to the II part, the devil manipulates the actual world for evil to take place. It needs an object
comprehensible to the human intellect to actualize its intention. Following the flow of thought, it
is not surprising that the devil always appears and manifests itself in the form of the beautiful.
Following this idea, though, the devil uses “good” things as a means of enticement, evil is
still not in the picture (Evil in the sense that its effect is experience). Temptation starts to happen
when an apparent good, in which most of the time in the form of the beautiful, appears to man.
The beautiful in the world is used as an attraction so that man will really fall to such bait. So
man’s fall to sin is a result of his failure to contemplate the “goods” of the world. Man’s
deception is rooted in his failure to discern the apparent goods often wrapped in beautiful advent.
So evil is not a former good transformed into its contrary. The “goods” of the created realities
remain to be good. Even if it has been used by the devil, it does not affect its goodness. But what
caused the good to be privated is when human will starts to actualize it. Therefore, as human
beings who are sentient, the devil uses the beauty of created realities for man to fall to his plans.
IV. Reversal of the Natural
The most famous defense of St. Augustine in the problem of evil is God’s omnipotence
and goodness. As St. Augustine claims in his work, “For the Almighty God, Who, as even the
heathen acknowledge, has supreme power over all things, being Himself supremely good, would
never permit the existence of anything evil among His works, if He were not so omnipotent and
good that He can bring good even out of evil”. In that concept, it is understandable that God is
powerful and that He can create something even coming from nothing. Given that evil is
nothingness, God can create something good out of nothing Reasonably, it is not dubitable that
God is capable in His power to draw goodness in everything even those that have no existence.
Now, it is given away that God is capable of translating evil objectively and wholly into
good. Looking now at the way of the devil, we may say that it is apparently the same as God’s
way. Every time there is a privation of good, it seems that good has been translated by the devil
into something evil. However, this mentality may be because the devil’s way is often compared
or in reference to the way of God when in fact they are not comparable. Naturally, what God can
do is a reversal of the natural. God can reverse things; He can turn everything 180 degrees. So
technically, God can use everything for His purpose. God does not need to always use beautiful
things in order to draw His purpose even in the most awful experience. Inversely, the devil, since
cannot do what God can do, entices man using the beautiful so that it can attract him. Therefore,
God is the only One who is capable of intervening in the natural order of the universe so that His
Providence may be fulfilled.

Conclusion
Posing the problem of evil, the main point of this paper is to give clarification to why
the devil always appears in the form of a beautiful. Using the philosophies of St. Thomas
Aquinas and St. Augustine, the problem has been answered. From this paper, the following ideas
have been presented, a.) God is Goodness Himself, b.) since God is Goodness Himself and He
created everything; all that has beings are good in themselves. c.) The devil, as a created spiritual
being, is good in itself yet corrupted by its will. d.) given that the devil has its own will and
cannot interrupt directly and fully the order of the universe, it uses “beautiful” things to entice
man. e.) The beautiful in the world is a perfect object for the devil to attract man because of
man’s sentient nature. f.) God permits evil in the world because in His omnipotence and
goodness can turn evil into good. g.) Finally, God’s work and the devil’s work are incomparable
since it is only God that is capable of intervening in the natural order of the universe so that His
Providence may be fulfilled.
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