On the Divination of Demons · §4 · Augustine of Hippo

The dilemma of permission and pleasure

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Augustine is answering the interlocutors' objection that the acts God permits must be good because they please him.

Against this it was said that these things are indeed unjust now, but not evil. They are unjust because they are done against the laws that forbid them, but they are not evil because, if they were evil, they would never have pleased God. And if they had never pleased him, they would never have happened when he was not allowing it—he who can do all things, and who would not disregard such things when they are so great that they are done against the very religion by which God is worshiped, if they were being done evilly.

At this point I said: If they are not evil for the reason that they are shown to please God by the fact that the Almighty allows them to happen, how will it be good that they are forbidden and overthrown? But if this is not good—that they are overthrown—then the Almighty would not allow it to happen, because this too is done against the religion by which God is worshiped, if the things that please God are overthrown by human beings. But if the Almighty permits this when it is done evilly, then those other things should not be considered good simply because the Almighty permitted them to happen.

Latin

Contra hoc dictum est iniusta quidem esse nunc ista, non tamen mala, et ideo iniusta, quia contra leges, quibus prohibentur, fiunt, ideo autem non mala, quia, si mala essent, numquam deo utique placuissent; porro si numquam placuissent, numquam facta essent illo non sinente, qui omnia potest et qui talia non contemneret, quando tam magna sunt, ut contra ipsam religionem, qua deus colitur, fierent, si male fierent. hic ego, si propterea, inquam, mala non sunt, quia deo placere hinc probantur, quod ea fieri sinit omnipotens, quomodo erit bonum, quod fieri prohibentur et euertuntur? si autem hoc bonum non est, quod euertuntur, quae deo placent, hoc fieri non sineret omnipotens, quia et hoc contra religionem fit, qua colitur deus, si ea, quae deo placent, ab hominibus euertuntur. si autem hoc, cum male fiat, permittit omnipotens, non ideo putanda sunt illa bona, quod ea fieri permisit omnipotens.

About this text

Augustine of Hippo (354–430) wrote this treatise for Christian laymen and for pagan critics of the Christian religion.

The specific question was why a demon had successfully predicted the destruction of the temple of Serapis in Alexandria, which had been destroyed in 391.

Augustine argues that God permits unjust acts such as murders and thefts not because they please him but for the damnation of those who do them. He explains that demons predict the future not by divine power but by the keen senses and swiftness of their airy bodies and by long experience, and that they are often deceived. A reader will meet the pagan god Serapis, whose temple was destroyed, and will hear quotations from the Roman poet Virgil, from the prophet Zephaniah, from the Psalms, and from the apostle Paul. The Psalms are cited according to the Septuagint numbering, which differs from the Hebrew numbering used in most modern English Bibles.

New English from the Latin base text; no published English used as wording.

Printed text used

Translated from CSEL 41 (1900) (Latin)

This work has passed this project's source check. This is an AI-assisted study translation. Source fidelity and completeness have not been independently certified. Open Latin on each section (or the Latin source witness link) for the source text. This is not a complete critical edition.