ABSTRACT
Augustine was born in North Africa of a Christian mother and a pagan father, later converted to Christianity. Augustine's best known writings are the Confessions and De civitate dei, but he wrote De trinitate, De doctrina Christiana, De libero arbitrio and numerous other theological works and attacks on heretical groups. Much of his extensive writing is of little philosophical interest; it is devotional literature and works on liturgical and other church matters. Augustine faced the theological problem of reconciling evil in the world with the goodness, power, and knowledge of its creator. He employed several arguments to account for evil. One argument builds on the Neo-Platonic concept of evil as an unavoidable aspect of a material world. Augustine's political theory was concerned with the role of the church in society. Augustine's view of creation of the world, the orthodox view of Judaism and Christianity, is that the world was created by God out of nothing.
