What Is Evil | Henri Blocher
2015 Kantzer Lecture #2 - Exploring the Quasi-Concept and the Area of Evil 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. Henri A. G. Blocher (DD Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary) is Professor Emeritus at Faculte Libre de Theologie Evangelique. He is author of In the Beginning: The Opening Chapters of Genesis (IVP Academic, 1984) and Original Sin: Illuminating the Riddle (IVP Academic, 2000). Blocher was a member of the Lausanne Committee on World Evangelization (1975-1980), served the World Evangelical Fellowship/Alliance in a number of capacities, and taught in schools in Europe, Australia, Africa, Canada, and the US. The Henry Center for Theological Understanding provides theological resources that help bridge the gap between the academy and the church. It houses a cluster of initiatives, each of which is aimed at applying practical Christian wisdom to important kingdom issues—for the good of the church, for the soul of the theological academy, for the sake of the world, and ultimately for the glory of God. The HCTU seeks to ground each of these initiatives in Scripture, and it pursues these goals collaboratively, in order to train a new generation of wise interpreters of the Word—lay persons and scholars alike—for the sake of tomorrow’s church, academy, and world. Visit the HCTU website: https://henrycenter.tiu.edu/ Subscribe to the HCTU Newsletter: https://bit.ly/326pRL5 Connect with us! https://twitter.com/henry_center https://www.facebook.com/henrycenter/ https://www.instagram.com/thehenrycenter/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/thehenrycenter