By Randall Smith, The Catholic Thing - I notice when teaching the works of Christian thinkers such as Athanasius, Augustine, and Hildegard of Bingen that something often mystifying to students is the metaphysical aspects of their thought. They have trouble grasping that God is not a being, but rather the Creator of All Being… They have a similar difficulty understanding that evil is a privation of Being, so that when a creature turns away from God, he or she turns away from the Source of its very Being.