what is known of evil

in a recent conversation which had its origin
in a couple of coincidental meetings with a
jewish architect
the question of evil arose

a week ago i was surprised to meet
a man i had met earlier this summer
and after the obligatory handshake
he immediately pressed me on the issue
of the notion of evil in christianity
wondering if i might guide him to
a writer or a book which would elucidate for him
the christian understanding of evil

perhaps 3 or 4 days later my friends
ran into this same person in a completely different place
and engaged in a conversation which was very much
like the one he (the architect) and i had had earlier

and as things would go
my friends and i have met in another place
some 1200 miles from the original conversation
and yesterday we conversed between the three of us
what in fact was at stake in this original conversation
"why does this person have such an intense interest in the topic
of evil?"
"how do we (I) understand evil??"
"what might be a way of enlightening this man
to what christians believe about the phenomenon of evil?"

the name RENE GIRARD recently emerged on the blog
LUTHERAN SURREALISM and the mere suggestion of the name
strikes me as almost too coincidental to be coincidental
at any rate
it occurred to me within the context of the most recent conversation
here in california
as opposed to the two that occurred in minnesota
that Girard's sociological insight into the largely
unconscious communal dynamic of scapegoating
might be the place to start
thus i will make the effort to contact the person
who made the original inquiry and suggest that he
read RENE GIRARD

but what do we know of evil??
the knowledge that events and relationships
can go terribly awry in life is something
that even children can experience

people hurt other people

within the context of narratives which inform us
as to the why's and wherefore's of evil
the genesis story of adam and eve in the garden
of paradise stands as the ur-story

i think it is safe to say that story exists
due to the insight on the part of someone
that human action and human will are just as
inclined to fail as to succeed
there is a likelihood of human affairs going
horribly amiss
and that there is a right way to think and to act

in that the symbolic tree from which adam and eve
were commanded not to eat is the tree of knowledge
it becomes an immediate concern for epistemological inquiry

how do i know that a person or an action is evil or the result of evil??

my good friend J stated that it is important to consider that there
is an intelligent deliberate and willful spiritual power in the world
as we know it which "inspires" and directs the force of evil

he was not saying that he knows that this intelligent entity exists
but that we cannot rule out such an entity

this entity is given the name Lucifer or Satan or the Devil
and as most people know in the christian world (and jewish)
there is a constant battle afoot between God and the Devil
the resolution of which will be the end of the known world
and the (hopeful) establishment of the one true kingdom of God

it was my contention that it is impossible to posit
the existence of an EVIL BEING in any sense other than
metaphorical
SATAN is and anthropomorphic concept deriving from the
religious imagination

this being said
i do not dispute the power of evil
any more than i dispute the power of ignorance
in fact my judgement is that
evil as it is worked out in human affairs
is the result of human ignorance more than anything else

thomas aquinas explains the phenomenon of sin
in terms of a lack of the fullness of love
sin is the result of the incapacity to love
or the human tendency to love in a purely selfish manner

now suffering it is true
often seems to occur when there
is no obvious lack of love

a car accident in most cases is just that
an accident
however this being said
if a factor such as human ignorance
such as "one driver was drunk" is part
of the reality of the accident
then it is possible to say
that a form of love was mitigated by
what amounts to a lapse in self love
putting oneself and others at danger
without recourse to reasonable prudence

what we know of evil then is
largely determined by experience

when we attach the quality of evil to
another human being we are making a judgment
which serves to separate us from the person
and there is then an unconscious attitude of
superiority
he is evil
but i am not evil

we may even say
he is possessed
(and i am not possessed..at least not by SATAN)

we know about murder
we know about despair
we know about people destroying
the good names of other people
we know about war
we know about irrational violence
we know about deception
we know about the scourge of wanton selfishness
we know about political oppression
we know about human recklessness

what we seem not to know
is how to love

the monks of early christianity
went to the desert to do battle
with the demons
and the literature of the desert fathers
and mothers is a witness to spiritual warfare
yet it must be understood that these battles
were waged within the constrained environs
of the cave or the simple desert cell
they were largely personal efforts
of clinging at all costs to the belief
in god's love for humanity
and a personal effort to "cleanse" the soul
with the necessary help of prayer
an active faith in the love brought into
the world through the person of JESUS CHRIST

the buddhist "gospel" simply determines that
DESIRE is the cause of all suffering
and they too have their personifications
of evil spirits

the beauty inherent in the creation story(s) is
stated in terms of "goodness"
all that god created
was perceived as good
as very good

what we know and understand as evil
stands in either deliberate or unconscious contrast
to that original perception of the goodness of all things

it is perhaps an equation that is too simple:
evil = ignorance

good = knowledge

perfect good = perfect knowledge

it is for us to consider whether perfect knowledge is something
to which the soul actually aspires