The Fundamental Ideas of Christianity

THEORIES AS TO THE ORIGIN AND NATURE ORE Vii.

2. THE THEORY OF NEGATION OR PRIVATION.

THE various theories which have been devised to explain the nature and origin of moral evil are attempts, in different ways, to answer the question, how, consistently with our belief in an infinite or absolutely perfect Being, we can account for the existence of that which we must conceive of as antagonistic to His nature or opposed to His will. If evil be not absolute, if it be not traceable to something independent of the mind and will of God and limiting His perfection, are we compelled to regard it as due to a contradictory element within the divine nature—to a will which wills at once that which is good and that which is evil? Can we conceive of God as absolutely perfect, and yet as the author of that which limits His power, wisdom, and goodness? The inadequacy of most of the theories to solve this apparent contradiction is traceable to the imperfect notions of the relation of God to the world which I have examined in former lectures; and the only adequate solution is that which is based on the Christian doctrine of that relation, or on the idea of God as revealing or manifesting Himself in nature and in the spirit and life of man.