Exploring the Quasi-Concept and the Area of Evil

God, Evil, and Possibility  |  Lecture 2 of 6

Continuing his analysis of the idea of evil, lecture two provides some “impressionistic” starting points to the idea of evil, before giving an analysis of Leibniz’s threefold articulation of evil as metaphysical, physical, and moral. We often apply the idea of evil in at least one of four senses: (i) evil is what is not as it ought to be; (ii) evil is the negation or privation of what was previously “good” (e.g. blindness is the negation of the good of sight); (iii) evil is not merely a negation, but also entails some active force in our experience of the world; and finally, (iv) evil is singular in that it is not a constituent feature of the created order. Based on these phenomenon of evil, Blocher concludes that evil is not fundamentally metaphysical or physical, but moral, what Scripture refers to as “sin.” It is an inward act that rejects the order of God’s creation. At bottom evil is rooted in the hatred of God, a rage against him, and the rejection of the order of his creation.

Biography

Henri A. G. Blocher is Professor of Systematic Theology, Faculte Libre de Theologie Evangelique, Vaux-sur-Seine, France. He is also an internationally recognized theologian, author, and teacher; he has taught in Africa, Australia, Canada, Europe and the United States.