Evil Deities?

[Notthemama1984]

Doing some reading and came across this statement that Augustine believed in heathen evil deities. No reference is given. Does anyone know what is being referred as is it really what he seems to say or something else?

Screenshot is from The God of War by Joseph Judson Taylor

Thanks in advance.

 

[CasualWestminsterEnjoyer]

View attachment 9858
Doing some reading and came across this statement that Augustine believed in heathen evil deities. No reference is given. Does anyone know what is being referred as is it really what he seems to say or something else?

Screenshot is from The God of War by Joseph Judson Taylor

Thanks in advance.

Augustine believes in "daemones", i.e. demons. That is the term the Greeks used for inferior deities, and the New Testament employs the term exclusively for demons. Thus, Augustine says the gods of the Greeks are actually demons, not gods.

 

[Notthemama1984]

Augustine believes in "daemones", i.e. demons. That is the term the Greeks used for inferior deities, and the New Testament employs the term exclusively for demons. Thus, Augustine says the gods of the Greeks are actually demons, not gods.

That makes more sense.

 

[Ryan&Amber2013]

With a deity being one who receives our devotion and worship, this term can be applied to mean just that.

"When the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance, when he divided mankind, he fixed the borders of the peoples according to the number of the sons of God. But the Lord’s portion is his people, Jacob his allotted heritage.
Deuteronomy 32:8‭-‬9"

This passage is interesting to me. Just what if the other nations were given demons as their portion? These would then be their deities, right?

 

[Deleted member 6112]

In his own words:
No longer, then, follow after false and deceitful gods; abjure them rather, and despise them, bursting forth into true liberty. Gods they are not, but malignant spirits, to whom your eternal happiness will be a sore punishment. Juno, from whom you deduce your origin according to the flesh, did not so bitterly grudge Rome’s citadels to the Trojans, as these devils whom yet ye repute gods, grudge an everlasting seat to the race of mankind.

Philip Schaff: NPNF1-02. St. Augustine's City of God and Christian Doctrine - Christian Classics Ethereal Library

ccel.org

 

[Deleted member 6112]

In The City of God, Augustine discredits Roman Paganism on its own terms by arguing at length that the gods are evil and petty, as shown through the myths, etc. On face value, he's assuming their existence, but only for the purpose of showing their absurdity.

In other places, like the one I quoted above, he unequivocally denies that they are gods. They are demons posing as gods, and the myths are false.

 

[RamistThomist]

The simplest answer is that they are demons (not the best choice of word, but it gets the point across). I do think there is a Deut. 32 angle as well.