Conference paper
ANTHROPOLOGICAL ROOTS OF EVIL
Marijan Jurčević
; Theology of Rijeka, Dislocated Studies of Catholic Faculty of Theology, University of Zagreb, Rijeka, Croatia
Abstract
There is a need of reassessment of the anthropological causes of evil. The permanence of the evil in the man and in the world proposes continually the question: whence and why the evil is present. This question was raised by all religions and all cultures, and everyone tried to find a solution. Is the source of evil the cosmos, God, gods, or man? In these definitions of the sources of evil different interpretations and solutions are proposed. One of the attempts in the clarification of the origin of evil and sin, is the belief about the Original sin. The Bible relieves God of the responsibility for evil and sin, and projects it on the man and bis freedom. Anyway, the biblical rhetoric conceming the original sin is a metaphoric one, and therefore it remained a diffi.cult subject fora complete comprehension up to these days. Except for the beginning of the Bible, other books do not mention the Original sin. Jesus does not discuss it either. Paul reassumes the subject, but in order to stress the universality of Jesus's salvific action, rather than the universality of the Original sin.
Saint Augustin was the first to develop the teaching on the Original sin, in order to reject the pelaghianism and maniheism. He linked it to the responsibility of the human freedom. The doctrine about the Original sin and baptism will be proposed by the Council ofTrident, conditioned by the Lutheranism.
The new age raises a radical question: who is responsible for the evil in the man and in the world? Where from comes the evil? Is the source God or man, or the developing process of the cosmos? In spite of all the attempts of explaining, the source of evil remains inexplicable. Jesus himself does not explain the source of evil, although he does not remain speechless confronted to it. His life is the greatest illumination of the problem of evil, being the manifestation of deeds of God. In this way the senselessness of evil comes to its accomplishment in Christ. Through him all evil is surpassed, and love is revealed as stronger than evil.
Keywords
evil; Original sin; nature; freedom; inheritance
Hrčak ID:
124592
URI
Publication date:
12.1.2009.
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