Evil: Absence or Something?

[MarcoPolo]

I’ve heard it said before evil is an absence of good. However, I came across this from Pope Paul VI:*Evil is not merely an absence of something but an active force, a living, spiritual being that is perverted and that perverts others. It is a terrible reality, mysterious and frightening. (Paul VI, Confronting the Devil’s Power, General Audience, November 15, 1972)*I prefer no one dismiss this in-hand because it’s a general audience, but I’d like to hear the reasoning for each the “absence” and “something.” Might be a “both”?

 

[JerryZ]

I’ve heard it said before evil is an absence of good. However, I came across this from Pope Paul VI:Evil is not merely an absence of something but an active force, a living, spiritual being that is perverted and that perverts others. It is a terrible reality, mysterious and frightening. (Paul VI, Confronting the Devil’s Power, General Audience, November 15, 1972)I prefer no one dismiss this in-hand because it’s a general audience, but I’d like to hear the reasoning for each the “absence” and “something.” Might be a “both”?

Well it is both and Pope Paul VI says so himself “Evil is not merely an absence of something”.
We can replace “merely” with “only” without changing the meaning of the sentence. So he agrees that evil is the absence of good however there is more to it than that.
Peace

 

[vicar777]

Indeed evil is both the absence of good and the presence of something. I’ve felt the presence of evil whenever “nominal Catholics” are in my presence. We really have to pray for protection against evil spirits as well as evildoers.

I pray, most of all, that the innocent, particularly children, will receive the special protection of God and His angels.

 

[Perfume_of_God]

Evil is not merely an absence of something but an active force, a living, spiritual being that is perverted and that perverts others. It is a terrible reality, mysterious and frightening. (Paul VI, Confronting the Devil’s Power, General Audience, November 15, 1972)

Wisdom words from Paul VI.

Everyone must pray for everyone who surrounds you (Inner or outer personal circle) in that short sentence Paul VI resumes the power of evil.

Padre Pio life helps all to understand and to open everyone’s eyes in this visible world, that there is more than our eyes can see for good and for evil, there is a constant battle in this invisible world.

GOD BLESS YOU ALL

 

[bzkoss236]

I would argue that it is sort of both, but mainly absence.

In any given ‘evil’ moment/thing is an absence of God’s Will (which is good), and the presence of another’s will.

But, the presence of someone else’s will is not what makes it ‘evil’. It is the absence of good (God’s Will) which makes it evil.

 

[devoutchristian]

Pope Paul VI is speaking of Satan, who is an active force in the world. However, Satan is not in essence evil (as there is no essence of evil), thus evil is per se just the absence of good. Of course, this was a general audience, so he wouldn’t speak as though he were teaching a course on manualized theology.

 

[Richca]

I’ve heard it said before evil is an absence of good. However, I came across this from Pope Paul VI:Evil is not merely an absence of something but an active force, a living, spiritual being that is perverted and that perverts others. It is a terrible reality, mysterious and frightening. (Paul VI, Confronting the Devil’s Power, General Audience, November 15, 1972)I prefer no one dismiss this in-hand because it’s a general audience, but I’d like to hear the reasoning for each the “absence” and “something.” Might be a “both”?

Pope Paul VI is clearly talking about the devils in the verse you quote from him. Philosophically, evil is the absence of good and as such evil is neither a being or a good because every being is good. Since God is the first cause of all being and He is infinitely good, He cannot be the cause of evil. The devils are good in the sense that God is the cause of their being, He created them. God is not the cause that the devils have a defect in their will, an absence of good, which is due to themselves. Since God is infinitely perfect and there is no defect in Him, a defect of action in the angels or man cannot be reduced to Him as to its cause. So, evil is not something, it is not a being. On the other hand, evil is in good as in its subject, it denotes a privation or absence of good.

 

[TylerJordan]

Well it is both and Pope Paul VI says so himself “Evil is not merely an absence of something”.
We can replace “merely” with “only” without changing the meaning of the sentence. So he agrees that evil is the absence of good however there is more to it than that.
Peace

Fair answer.

 

[sw85]

Yes, evil is both the absence of good and an active force.

Lucifer is an angel, so his evil consists in his failure to instantiate fully the glorious goodness of his nature. In that sense evil is the absence of good. But that doesn’t mean that evil is passive. Lucifer is evil, yes, but still a real thing that does stuff and hurts people, etc.

 

[MarcoPolo]

Good answers all. I think both seems like a reasonable understanding.

 

[KyivAndrew]

I believe evil is not just the absence of goodness but also can be the twisting and distortion of goodness. As Christians, of course, we are not Dualists nor Manichaeans; we don’t believe that Good and Evil are two equally powerful and self-sufficient powers.

In my opinion, in Christianity there is no such thing as absolute evil, if absolute is the correct term here. There is absolute goodness which is God, but evil, the devil, satan cannot exist on its own by its own power. In order to exist it seems it has to somehow take a kernel of good and absolutely twist and pervert it until it is unrecognizable. Satan was fallen from goodness. It is as if evil became a twisted branch off the tree which branch now rebels and throws disease back at its by-now separate root. I know this isn’t a great analogy but I remember C.S. Lewis once mentioning something about roots and branches I think though by now I’ve forgotten if I read this or came up with it myself.

In any event, I’ll give some examples. Communism. It was evil with its Gulag and genocides but it had to somehow take the idea of helping the exploited (a good) and mangle it with violence, opression, and murder. Fascism: it had to take the idea of patriotism but it combined it with extermination and genocide. In both, goodness could be absent but it was also the complete twisting and twisting of whatever was good in helping the exploited or patriotism until both became perversions. They were evil. They also both attempted to have Man become God in that they attempted by coercion to create utopias (or dystopias) on earth and have systems which could control everything. “Ye shall be as gods” said the serpent in the garden, and Stalin and Hitler listened.

This is how I understand evil. It is an active and iniquitous force, but it is neither all-powerful nor self-sufficient. It can be not just the absence of goodness but also the perversion and twisting of what can be good and what was once good, until any goodness is completely unrecognizable. In saying this, I do not wish in any way to belittle the real suffering and horror which evil (murder, rape, torture) can cause. It is real. And it is frightening. And it is something we struggle against on this earth.

I hope this makes sense.

I also welcome anybody’s thoughts on this because it’s a tough concept and in the end we realize that the problem of evil is not just simply understandable by our reason alone but that there is some mystery too which we strain to comprehend and only God knows.

 

[KyivAndrew]

there is no essence of evil

devout, that’s an interesting way of putting it. I normally don’t ask questions on threads in which I’m not the OP but could you elaborate on how you mean “there is no essence of evil”?

 

[devoutchristian]

devout, that’s an interesting way of putting it. I normally don’t ask questions on threads in which I’m not the OP but could you elaborate on how you mean “there is no essence of evil”?

Essence is what defines a being as itself, and if a change were made to a being’s essence then it would not be itself. All beings, having been created by God, have a good essence. Since a being does not have the power to annihilate itself, it therefore does not have the power to change its essence (since that would have the effect of turning itself into a different being). Therefore Satan, as well as all of the other beings who have set their will in opposition to God, still possess their original essences, which are good.

 

[KyivAndrew]

Essence is what defines a being as itself, and if a change were made to a being’s essence then it would not be itself. All beings, having been created by God, have a good essence. Since a being does not have the power to annihilate itself, it therefore does not have the power to change its essence (since that would have the effect of turning itself into a different being). Therefore Satan, as well as all of the other beings who have set their will in opposition to God, still possess their original essences, which are good.

Thanks for the answer. Makes sense, though I’ll have to reread it tomorrow for it to sink in as it’s very, very late now for me and I’m off.

 

[MarcoPolo]

Pope Paul VI is speaking of Satan, who is an active force in the world. However, Satan is not in essence evil (as there is no essence of evil), thus evil is per se just the absence of good. Of course, this was a general audience, so he wouldn’t speak as though he were teaching a course on manualized theology.

I understand the reference is to the devil. That’s quite explicit in the Pope’s text. However, he does seem to state evil is not “merely” absence. If that audience was originally in Italian, here is the Vatican’s transcript:Il male non è più soltanto una deficienza, ma un’efficienza, un essere vivo, spirituale, pervertito e pervertitore.“male” = evil. And non…deficienza vs. efficienza refers to something not deficient vs. efficient, i.e. properly translated not absent but present? So perhaps we can say that the devil is effectively an actual presence of evil, even if not in original essence.

 

[devoutchristian]

So perhaps we can say that the devil is effectively an actual presence of evil, even if not in original essence.

Effectively speaking, that is correct, Satan operates solely as an enemy of the good.