아우구스티누스의 계층적 우주론 고찰 ― 죄론을 중심으로 = Augustine’s Appropriation of Hierarchical Cosmology: Concerning his Hamartiology

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

This study examines Augustine's Neoplatonic hierarchical cosmology in relation to his hamartiology and suggests contributions, limits and implications of his doctrine. Augustine approaches the compatibility of God's omnipotence and the existence of evil through his Christianized Neoplatonic ontological hierarchy. The hierarchical cosmology is the central theological foundation that buttresses Augustine’s hamartiology. Augustine defines God as “One Supreme Being” and evil as “non-being” by locating God and evil in his hierarchical frame. The hierarchical cosmology supplies a logical tool for Augustine’s hamartiology and becomes an absolute standard to decide the scope and content of his doctrine of sin and evil.
On the one hand, Augustine effectively explains the issue of theodicy and the phenomenon of evil by using his hierarchical cosmology. His understanding of evil and sin delivers the eschatological hope that the benevolent God finally defeats evil. He also supplies a persuasive perspective on the Christian notion of God and evil in front of the challenges of the heretic teachings of his time, like Manichaeism, employing his ontological system. Augustine keenly examines sin and evil's structure and characteristics through the lens of ontological hierarchy. On the other hand, however, his cosmology contains the weakness in which destructive evil and sin in the world can be understood as a mere side effect of humanity's misuse of free will by emphasizing evil as a rhetorical and eschatological non-being. Furthermore, his doctrine also contains the risk in which the members of the human race can be hierarchically categorized by one's race, gender and class. The study concludes that the doctrine of “ontological hierarchy” or “order of creation” needs to be reinterpreted in light of the message of “new creation” testified in the Bible.