Augustine, Manichaeism and the Good

Scholars long recognize the important contribution of Manichaeism to the thinking of St. Augustine, the Bishop of Hippo (354-430). This book is an attempt to magnify how that influence shapes the theme of Good and Evil. The focus of this investigation is Augustine's earlier writings, composed prior to A.D. 400. Although written from a historical perspective, this work has implication to systematic theology on the predestination issue. It concludes that the concept of determinism, in Augustine's notion of predestination, is not a simple biblical derivation. Instead, the concept emerges from his wrestling with the Manichaean cosmological concern when dealing with the question of personal evil.