in their form. “No matter how much creatures may lack, and however much they tend toward nonexistence by virtue of their deficiency, nevertheless some form remains in them, so that they somehow exist. Moreover, whatever form remains in a deficient object comes from that Form which knows no lack.”13 This belief in the existence and omnibenevolence of God as Creator is the cornerstone of Augustine’s theodicy. With these truths firmly in place, both piety and reason require the believer to dissociate