Dr. William Marra discusses the problem of evil. Gnostic influences, so strong at the time of the late Empire, led many men to presume that the evils of nature indicate its creation by an evil God or demigod. Augustine, the greatest of the Church Fathers, found the problem of evil to be one of the stumbling blocks to his conversion. Dr. William Marra discusses here the great "mystery of iniquity", the dilemmas it poses to well-meaning unbelievers, and Christian explanations for its reality. Taken from: Early Christianity and Late Antiquity - 1993 VonHildebrand Institute