On the Divination of Demons · §5 · Augustine of Hippo

God can disapprove and yet permit

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Augustine is answering the interlocutors' claim that whatever God permits must please Him, pressing them on why forbidden rites still happen secretly if God permits nothing unjust.

The reply came back that we must concede that these things are rightly not done now—indeed, that they are no longer done at all precisely because they now displease the Almighty—but that they did please him when they were done. We simply do not know why they pleased him then or why they displease him now, but this much is certain: they could not have been done then unless they had pleased the Almighty, and they would not have ceased now unless they had displeased the Almighty.

To this I said: Why, then, do such things still happen secretly even now—things that either stay hidden forever or are punished when they are detected—if the Almighty permits nothing to happen unless it pleases the righteous God, and what is unjust cannot please the righteous God?

The reply came back that such things are not done at all now. Those sacred rites, they said, are not performed—the ones written down in the pontifical books. Those were rightly done then, and they were shown to please God then by the very fact that the Almighty and righteous God allowed them to be done. But if any of the now-forbidden sacrifices is performed secretly and unlawfully, it is not to be compared with that pontifical kind of sacrifice. Rather, it is to be counted in the same category as what is done at night, since it is certain that all these unlawful things are forbidden and condemned by the pontifical books themselves.

Here I responded: Why, then, does God permit even such things to happen, if he does not despise any of the evil deeds that are committed against religion—especially since those who hold the pontifical books in high esteem are forced to concede that God cares about these things, because they assert that what is forbidden in those books is forbidden by divine authority? How are they forbidden by divine authority unless they displease God? By forbidding them, he shows not only that they displease him but also that he cares about them and does not despise them at all. From this it follows that God, as the righteous God, disapproves of something and yet, as the Almighty, permits it.

Latin

Dictum contra est concedendum esse nunc ista recte non fieri, immo ideo prorsus iam non fieri, quod omnipotenti nunc displicent, uerumtamen placuisse, cum fierent; nos enim nescire, unde tunc placuerint, nunc autem unde displiceant, ++ dum tamen certum sit nec tunc fieri potuisse, nisi placuissent omnipotenti. nec nunc cessasse, nisi displicuissent omnipotenti.. ad hoc ego, cur ergo, inquam, et nunc talia clanculo fiunt, quae uel perpetuo delitiscunt uel deprehensa puniuntur, si nihil horum fieri sinit omnipotens, nisi quod ei iusto placet, cum iusto quod iniustum est placere non possit? contra hoc dictum est nunc omnino talia non fieri. sacra enim illa, inquit, non fiunt, quae pontificalibus conscripta sunt libris; ea quippe tunc recte fiebant, ea tunc deo placere demonstrabantur eo ipso, quod ab omnipotente ac iusto fieri sinebantur; si quid autem nunc prohibitorum sacrificiorum fit occulte atque inlicite, non est illi pontificali sacrificiorum generi conparandum, sed in eodem deputandum, quod etiam nocturno fit tempore, cum haec omnia inlicita ipsis pontificalibus libris certum sit prohiberi atque damnari. hic respondi: cur ergo uel talia permittit deus fieri, si nihil eorum malefactorum contemnit, quae contra religionem fiunt, cum praesertim haec eum curare hinc etiam cogantur concedere, qui pontificales libros magni aestimant, quod ea, quae his libris prohibentur. utique diuinitus prohiberi asserunt? quomodo ergo diuinitus prohibentur, nisi quia displicent deo, quae utique prohibendo non solum sibi displicere, uerum etiam curare se ostendit neque omnino contemnere? unde colligitur, quod deus aliquid et improbet iustus et tamen permittat 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.