We have seen that, despite many critics' claims to the contrary, a broadly Augustinian interpretation of and response to evil's challenge remains viable and indeed of considerable use to contemporary theology and ethics. The Augustinian commitments developed by Niebuhr and Arendt work to promote social practices and individual attitudes which respond to evil, collectively, by deepening our worldly participation – not just as a response to evil, but as constitutive of human flourishing simpliciter. And we saw that this understanding of evil derives from an essentially positive theological ontology, one built around an essentially “incarnational” core.