Experience Of Evil Research Articles

Defeating the Problem of Evil with Evil

I argue that the creation and freely chosen salvation and everlasting bliss of even just one person is a greater good than any finite amount of evil and suffering. Since it is extremely likely (if not certain) that, out of all possible individuals that could exist, some (or at least one) would only be freely saved through the contemplation and experience of evil and suffering, then God would be justified in creating a world with evil and suffering to allow for the salvation of such individuals, so long as no one else freely lost their salvation who otherwise would not have lost it because of the evil and suffering. Thus, the problem of evil dissipates, as a world with evil and suffering, even seemingly gratuitous evil and suffering, would be entirely expected given theism.

Un nuevo rostro de Dios para nuestro tiempo

The experience of evil and suffering is a real fact and facing this is necessary to find sense in the mistery of pain. It is only from a faithful look that we can get closer to the deep mistery of suffering. There are innumerable questions that emerge from this experience: Why does evil exist? Does God allow it? Why doesn't God stop such terrible experience of pain and suffering? From all of these questions and others that could probably emerge, it is strictly necessary to make a theological question: Is it possible to even think about God's suffering? This led to a paradigm shift in Trinitarian-theological reflection, moving from the notion of an immutable and apathetic God, to a passive and suffering God. In this article, the author addresses the study of the axiom of divine patheia from its causes, its theological implications and the contributions of contemporary theological reflection, to enlighten the real and suffering man of our time and to express its relevance and capital importance in current theological reflection.

Daring to be Good

In this tribute to the life and work of philosopher Bat-Ami Bar On, I start by describing what daring to be good looks like. I present engagement with good and evil as a dilemma, one that I believe Bar On’s work overcomes. In the experience of evil in the world, people can make good decisions with incomplete information and uncertainty, or people can experience atrocity in bold relief and remain apathetic. We should understand the causes and motivations for both. I make suggestions about how we can bring these visions into the classroom with the critical, engaged pedagogies of Paolo Freire and David A. Kolb, concluding with a return to the idea of philosophy as political action. We are daring—courageous—when we endeavor to do good, especially when the outcome is uncertain and/or requires sacrifice. In the end, I summarize Bar On’s five-step method for confronting evil with meaningful political citizenship.

The Problem of Evil in Philosophy

The problem of evil is a subset of philosophical problems. When the problem of evil was originally deliberated in a theistic setting, it challenged the theistic thinker to reconcile the existence of God with the experience of evil. Since around the enlightenment period, the problem of evil transformed into, what some philosophers call, an argument from evil where the proponents of the problem argued that belief in the existence of God was rendered irrational or improbable by evil. Many contemporary thinkers still engage with this problem and regard it as a legitimate objection to theism. This paper explores the perception of the problem as well as argues that upon analysis the approach and underlying assumptions of the problem of evil are themselves problematic.

Nature of Land

Contemporary happenings in Nigeria especially in the areas of governance, security and religious interactions call for deep reflections and basic questions. There are concerns about religious insurgency, kidnappings for ransoms, ritual killings and so on. How does one reconcile the happenings with God’s divine will and love for humans? Using critical analytic method, the paper tries to bring the problem of God and human experience of evil in Nigeria into dialogue with the science of anthropology. The paper concludes that lawlessness and human arrogance and choices escalates most of the challenges in Nigeria.

Divine Will and Human Experience of Evil in Contemporary Nigerian Society:A Theological Reflection

Contemporary happenings in Nigeria especially in the areas of governance, security and religious interactions call for deep reflections and basic questions. There are concerns about religious insurgency, kidnappings for ransoms, ritual killings and so on. How does one reconcile the happenings with God’s divine will and love for humans? Using critical analytic method, the paper tries to bring the problem of God and human experience of evil in Nigeria into dialogue with the science of anthropology. The paper concludes that lawlessness and human arrogance and choices escalates most of the challenges in Nigeria.

Pourquoi avons-nous besoin du témoignage ?

This article proposes to analyze the relations between ethics and the poetics of testimony. It does so by testing Paul Ricoeur’s analyses of testimony with the literary work of the Belarusian Nobel Prize winner Svletana Alexievitch. After having shown why witnessing occupies a type of expressivity that is singular in contemporary times, and then having been surprised by the strong links that unite witnessing and the experience of evil, Alexievitch’s work is chosen to explain what the resource of the poetic could be, in the face of the question of evil. Ultimately, the consequences are drawn for the development of a practical wisdom in which testimony would be in a good place.

Pisarz wobec historii i mitu — wokół debiutu literackiego Jana Józefa Szczepańskiego

The purpose of the article is to reconstruct polemics about Jan Józef Szczepański’s literary debut, the short story “Buty” (The Shoes), published in Tygodnik Powszechy (1947, no. 6). The analysis of Szczepański’s answer to the readers’ objections and to Kazimierz Wyka’s review leads to conclusions that this controversy helped Szczepański to rethink the tasks of literature and to under-stand his own role as a writer. At the time of his debut, Szczepański formulated a programme of creativity based on the truth of his experience of evil during the Second World War. This programme did not match the readers’ expectations, as they were hoping that a writer dealing with a wartime subject would take up the myth of Good and Evil, which justified a national code popular in Polish literature, i.e. “the holy fight for the homeland.”

Les risques de la symbolisation du mal. Essai de confrontation entre La Symbolique du mal et La Littérature et le mal

Cet article compare deux livres majeurs : La Symbolique du mal, de Paul Ricœur et La Littérature et le mal, de Georges Bataille. L’articulation de ces deux penseurs que tout semble opposer répond à l’espoir de dégager une forme de compatibilité productive entre eux à travers leur intérêt commun pour le langage du mal. On insistera tout d’abord sur Ricœur : c’est en reconnaissant que le dire de l’expérience du mal passe d’abord nécessairement par un langage symbolique qu’il nous permet de penser l’insistance de Bataille sur la place de la littérature quant au mal. On montrera ensuite que l’affirmation par Bataille d’une lucidité littéraire moderne du mal, tout en permettant de confirmer les thèses de Ricœur au sujet du caractère à la fois historique et langagier de l’expérience du mal, nous conduit aussi à en formuler la principale conséquence : que le langage du mal, marqué du sceau de la créativité poétique, ne peut sans doute pas être tenu pour achevé. On soulignera enfin l’intérêt de cette approche pour interpréter, avec la littérature, les nouvelles expériences du mal aujourd’hui.

Doświadczenie zła jako racja dla ateizmu (analiza koncepcji Jerome'a I. Gellmana)

W tym artykule analizuję krytycznie propozycję J. Gellmana, która głosi, że istnieje rodzaj doświadczenia zła, w którym podmiotowi manifestuje się nieistnienie Boga. To doświadczenie może stanowić rację prima facie dla przekonania, że Boga nie ma. Przyjęcie podejścia Gellmana pozwala na wyjście poza klasyczny podział na intelektualny i emocjonalny problem zła. Pozwala również na uratowanie racjonalności tych ateistów, którzy nie wierzą w Boga w wyniku tego, że doświadczyli zła, ale nie znają argumentów ze zła za nieistnieniem Boga. Wskazuję na dwa problemy związane z propozycją Gellmana. Pierwszy problem to problem niejasnych kryteriów identyfikacji konkretnego doświadczenia zła jako postrzeżenia nieistnienia Boga. Drugi problem dotyczy uniwersalności wniosków Gellmana: możliwe, że szereg doświadczeń zła, które prowadzą do uznania, że Boga nie ma, nie ma charakteru postrzeżenia, że Boga nie ma. W przypadku przekonań utworzonych na podstawie takich doświadczeń należy zatem poszukać źródeł uzasadnienia innych niż percepcja.

U podstaw myśli etycznej Leszka Kołakowskiego

The article discusses primary matters of Leszek Kołakowski’s ethical thought. For that purpose, the analysis focuses on the need to justify the content of natural law. Kołakowski maintains that the development of communication and growth of cities are foundations of the justification process. In line with this idea the intuition of evil (related with such terms like tabu, sacrum, profanum or sin) is the major determinant for the distinction between good and evil. Kołakowski’s theory also explores a connection between the experience of evil and human dignity.

Aquinas’ De malo and the Ostensibly Problematic Status of Natural Evil as Privation

Arguments concerning the nature of natural evil vary in their conclusions depending on the particular approach with which they commence inquiry; one of the most contested conclusions regards evil as privation, sourcing its justification primarily from Aquinas’ metaphysical conception of good as being and evil as non-being. It should be of no surprise, then, that the dismissal of natural evil’s privative nature comes about when the understanding of natural evil favours a phenomenological approach rather than a metaphysical one. Proponents of said dismissal generally centre their claims around the notion of pain and suffering as substantially contentful – as in, non-privative – experiences of evil. On the other hand, theorists espousing the privation account generally argue that characterisations of pain and suffering as necessarily evil do not consider the context of orientation towards individual wellbeing within which pain/suffering experiences naturally function. Furthermore, some of the arguments for the privation account’s dismissal seem to disregard completely the Thomistic sense of the form and hierarchy of the good, which ends up straw-manning the privation account to a point where it can no longer reconcile the awfulness of experienced pain and suffering with these experiences not being necessarily evil. The importance of understanding this Thomistic sense is further emphasised in its capacity to explain why a divine and fully good Creator would involve the world with such evil. Thus, this paper first considers the account of evil given in question one of Aquinas’ De malo, along with contemporary arguments for the nature and purpose of evil as privation; second, these are then used as resources to help make sense of, one, the general nature of pain and suffering, and two, some of their specific expressions as found in disease and depression, and throughout evolutionary history.

Le phénomène de la souffrance comme élément constitutif de la théophilosophie affirmative de Kierkegaard

AbstractThis paper analyzes the problem of suffering in Kierkegaard’s thought on the basis of two main parts of his work: pseudonymous writings and upbuilding discourses. The main assumption is that Kierkegaard presents the problem of suffering differently in these two parts: in the pseudonymous writings from the viewpoint of the negative dialectic of paradox, and in the upbuilding discourses in terms of the positive dialectic of upbuilding. Therefore, the problem of suffering is examined separately in both these parts: in the pseudonymous writings as the phenomenology of suffering and in the upbuilding discourses as the hermeneutics of suffering. The most important conclusion is that the experience of suffering in Christianity has a completely positive dimension, because it is radically opposed to the experience of evil. The Christian suffering is in this approach, according to the pattern of Jesus Christ, an effect of the spiritual development of a human being in God and a place of God’s revelation in human existence. This understanding of Christian suffering leads to the discovery of a perspective of affirmative theophilosophy as an original interpretation of the Christian ideal presented by Kierkegaard.

The many faces of evil: philosophical and theological conversations on the experience of evil

ABSTRACTIn this article, a way of analysing the pluriformity and mutability of the experience of evil is developed. Against the background of a relational account of the possibility and the actuality of evil, it is argued that evil cannot be accounted for in a decontextualized manner, but can only be interpreted in the context of a particular (religious) understanding of reality. In the context of Christian faith and practice, a suggestion for understanding evil as contradiction against God’s creative agency, as rejection of God’s transforming agency in Christ and resistance to God’s perfecting agency in the Holy Spirit is put forward. The thesis that evil in its many forms can only be understood from the perspective of its overcoming is developed with reference to Luther’s On the Bondage of the Will.

Silencing Theodicy with Enthusiasm: Aesthetic Experience as a Response to the Problem of Evil in Shaftesbury, Annie Dillard, and the Book of Job

The problem of evil is not only a logical problem about God's goodness but also an existential problem about the sense of God's presence, which the Biblical book of Job conceives as a problem of aesthetic experience. Thus, just as theism can be grounded in religious experience, atheism can be grounded in experience of evil. This phenomenon is illustrated by two contrasting literary descriptions of aesthetic experience by Jean‐Paul Sartre and Annie Dillard. I illuminate both of these literary texts with a discussion of the 18th Century philosopher Lord Shaftesbury's concept of ‘enthusiasm’.

Diagnosing Demons and Healing Humans: The Pastoral Implications of a Holistic View of Evil and Collusion between Its Forms

Demons as a motif in New Testament narrative may express an allusion to the undifferentiated experience of evil and suffering, rather than to distinct, supernatural intelligences. While a strand of New Testament scholarship argues convincingly in this regard, the magisterium teaches that demons exist as disembodied persons. When evaluating requests for major exorcisms, the Church insists that demonic possession is distinguishable from natural ailments so as to associate demons with distinctly supernatural phenomena. This paper argues that, even if demons do exist as free-willed, intelligent persons, their agency may be insidiously intertwined with social and natural forms of evil so as to be experienced in the undifferentiated manner suggested by the biblical authors. The collusion of personal sin and with social sin, recognized in many contextual theologies and in Catholic Social Teaching, offers a broader insight into collusion between the forms of evil. If evil can defy clear categorization in this manner, this may point to the need for a holistic pastoral response. The paper includes a brief case analysis in relation to the tragic death of Anneliese Michel in Klingenberg, Germany, in 1976. This case exemplified an extremely dualistic approach to the pastoral care of a person claiming to be the subject of demonic attack, and influenced the Catholic bishops of Germany to recommend reform in the manner in which such situations are addressed. The case analysis is followed by a survey of New Testament exegesis on exorcism narratives, and a harmatological argument for an interplay between the forms of evil.

Expressions and Projections of Evil in Mass Violence

This article examines two recent school shooting cases in Finland, and the use of the concept of evil as a tool to discern the violence and cruelty of the incidents. The analysis is based on qualitative, focused interviews with local residents. Participants used the notion of evil to describe and understand school shootings and their perpetrators. Evil was mostly associated with the act of violence and with the perpetrators. Processing the experience of evil included the projection and externalization of evil. This process was associated with the fear of being labeled and reluctance to work through the traumatic experiences.

Confession Rituals and the Philosophy of Forgiveness in Asian Religions and Christianity

In this paper I will take into account the historical, religious and philosophical aspects of the examination of conscience, penance and satisfaction, as well as ritual confession and cure, in Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism. I will also take into account the difficulties that baptized Chinese Christians met in sacramental Catholic confession. Human history proves that in every culture and religion, man has always had a need to be cleansed from evil and experience mutual forgiveness. What ritual models were used by Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism? To what degree did these models prove to be true? What are the connections between a real experience of evil, ritual confession, forgiveness and cure in Chinese religions and philosophies?

Preface

Preface Michael C. Jordan In a ceremony in 2007 marking the conferral by the Catholic Institute of Paris of an honorary doctoral degree upon Chinese-born writer François Cheng, Professor Nathalie Nabert described Cheng's work as "a continual dialogue of the interior worlds," a dialogue conducted on the basis of Cheng's Chinese cultural heritage and his long-time participation in French culture, culminating in his election to the French Academy in 2002 as the first Asian-born member of the Academy.1 Cheng was born in China in 1929 and has lived and worked as a scholar, writer, and translator in France since 1949. In his acceptance speech at the Catholic Institute of Paris, Cheng confirmed the importance of dialogue between China and the Christian West in his work, describing himself as having become "a man of dialogue" because of what he described as his "double destiny," and pointing to the central place of Christianity in the West as he had encountered it in his experience.2 In his recent book translated from French into English as The Way of Beauty, Cheng establishes beauty as a key term in the dialogue between the Christian West and China, but he insists that we can [End Page 5] speak of beauty "in these times of universal suffering, random violence, and natural and ecological disasters" only if we confront the position of beauty in relation to evil.3 "I am convinced that it is our urgent and ongoing task to take a hard look at these two mysteries, which constitute the two poles of the living universe: at one end, evil; at the other, beauty" (5–6). He offers a biographical account of how this realization first confronted him. One of his aunts returned to China after a visit to France and brought reproductions of a number of great paintings. Around the same time, he encountered documentary photographs depicting the results of acts of torture perpetrated during the 1936 Nanking Massacre. "From then on, in the consciousness of the eight-year-old child I then was, superimposed upon the image of ideal beauty in Ingres's 'La Source' was that of the violated woman, maimed by her abuser" (10). This horrifying juxtaposition of images powerfully reflects a dilemma concerning beauty that has frequently been discussed in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries: when we focus on beauty, do we evade the reality of suffering and evil in the world? Cardinal Ratzinger has expressed this problem in these words: Can the beautiful be genuine, or, in the end, is it only an illusion? Isn't reality perhaps basically evil? The fear that in the end it is not the arrow of the beautiful that leads us to the truth, but that falsehood, all that is ugly and vulgar, may constitute the true "reality" has at all times caused people anguish. At present this has been expressed in the assertion that after Auschwitz it was no longer possible to write poetry; after Auschwitz it is no longer possible to speak of a God who is good.4 How, then, does Cheng develop an understanding of beauty that responds to the reality of our experience of evil? As he tells us in his previously cited speech at the Catholic Institute of Paris, his fundamental cosmological vision comes from the great Taoist intuition of the interdependence of all things: "Beginning with the idea of the [End Page 6] Breath-Spirit, Taoism advances a unitary and organic conception of the living universe, where everything adheres and is interlinked" (168). In The Way of Beauty, Cheng argues that this cosmological vision is at the heart of Chinese culture and of the Chinese experience of the beautiful. "The primordial Breath that ensures the original unity continues to animate all beings, linking them into a giant, interwoven, engendering network called the Tao, the Way" (67). Every object, every component of the cosmos, when coming into its fullness of being emerges as a participant in the living interconnected whole: "The uniqueness of each individual can only be constituted, affirmed, gradually revealed, and finally can become meaningful in the face of other unique beings, thanks to other unique beings. That...

The problem of theodicy and the theology of the cross

Theodicy is the attempt to justify God’s righteousness and goodness amidst the experience of evil and suffering in the world. This article discusses Karl Barth’s Christological and Jürgen Moltmann’s eschatological approach to the problem of theodicy. The central theoretical argument is that the problem of theodicy poses a major hermeneutical challenge to Christianity that needs to be addressed, since it has implications for the way in which theology defines itself. Questions that arise are: What are the boundaries of theology? What are the grounds on which the question of theodicy must be asked? Is the Christian understanding of God’s omnipotence truly Scriptural? The modern formulation of theodicy finds its origin in the Enlighten- ment that approaches the problem from a theoretical framework based on human experience. This theoretical approach leads, however, to further logical inconsistencies. Theology must rather approach the problem in the same way as Scripture does, by taking the cross, resurrection and parousia of Christ as point of departure. The cross and resurrection are a sign that suffering is not part of God’s plan and at the same time an affirmation of God’s victory over suffering and evil.