Freely Loving the Highest Good Essay -- Analysis, Augustines View

One of the inquiries that is often raised in the topic of the will is the account of humans not loving and turning away from the highest good. By this, I mean that there is a relation between the freedom of the will and human beings not having a rightly ordered love, that is, to love the wrong thing. According to Augustine’s philosophy, the chain of iniquity is self-forged by our divided will, also referred to as the divided house. In Book XII of â€Å"City of God† Augustine declares it pointless to look for the cause of the evil will. For the cause, he argues, is â€Å"deficient,† not â€Å"efficient.† In supporting Augustine’s view, I will provide my own examples and arguments in order to strengthen his claims. Before I can expostulate on the issues of the divided will, and the reward for freely willing to love the highest good, I will explain what Augustine means by â€Å"deficient† as opposed to† efficient† cause as the foun dation of the divided house. Deficient Cause vs. Efficient Cause Often times, actions are analyzed by rational explanation or causal explanation. Rational explanation attempts to construe an action by the aims a person might presently have in his mind. Causal explanation attempts to find the cause for that particular action. Augustine thinks it is absurd to locate the cause of the evil will. Perhaps, we should take into account Augustine’s view about â€Å"The First Sin,† when the defection of the bad angels was first encountered. â€Å"In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth†¦ And God saw that it was good† (NRSV, Genesis 1). If the Bible states that God created everything good because He is good, then evil, according to Augustine, is the absence of good and does not have any positive being--- defective and lack ... ...ents, love God above all and love your neighbor as yourself, indicate that we should love the most what is objectively the best. Pride is a perverse kind of self-love and a feature of the will. Pride was the deficient cause of Satan freely choosing himself over God and continues to be a relevant cause for humans as result of â€Å"The Original Sin.† In redemption, Jesus Christ, a model of humility, was the Second Adam who because of grace sacrifices Himself to bear and forgive humans of sin. I believe that we can choose to will good or to will evil. To freely will the love for the ultimate good means to willingly love God above all. Although our nature is subject to pride and is deficient in goodness, we can still choose what is good. By having this rightly ordered love , we choose the highest good. As a reward, God gives the gift of true happiness in the afterlife.