Judeo Christian Heritage

Core -368-Origins of Evil

                 Instructor:        Dr.  Andreas Kiryakakis

                 Office:             HAB 134

                 Phone:             363-2746 (O)

                                          845-4350 (H)

                 Office Hours:   Monday-Friday 8:00-9:15

                                         And By Appointment 

 

Course Description of  Origins of Evil

 

The discussion surrounding the Problem of Evil in the Judeo-Christian tradition generally focuses on the following questions.  Is it possible to believe in an all-loving and all-powerful God who guides and arranges our lives when there exists such horrible evil and suffering in the world.  Why did God not eliminate all of this agony and suffering?  Why did God not create a better world in the first place?  Can we still affirm divine justice despite all of the suffering in the world?  Within the framework of these, and other questions we will examine the ideas and theoretical foundations that make up the problem of evil. We will examine representative works by theologians, philosophers, writers and artists, in order to determine the limits and the validity of their positions.    The primary aim of this class is not to determine whether the actions of God are right or wrong, but to examine and clarify the methods used by scholars and how these individuals fit within the precepts of various religious orders and schools of thought.

 

Required Reading: (Primary)

 

Dostoevsky, Fyodor               Excerpts from The Brothers Karamozov

                                                The Grand Inquisitor & Rebellion

                  

Dürrenmatt,  Friedrich            The Physicists

 

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang      Faust.

 

Hesse, Herman                       Demian: The Story of Emil Sinclair's Youth

. 

Peck, M. Scott.                       People of the Lie: The Hope for Healing Human Evil.

 

Vardy, Peter.                          The Puzzle of Evil.

 

Tolstoy, Leo                            God Sees the Truth, But Waits

 

 

 

Required Reading: (secondary, short excerpts)

 

B407M3                    Aristotle.  Metaphysics@ in Introduction to Aristotle. edited, with a general introduction and introductions to the particular works by Richard McKeon.  New York: The Modern Library, 1950.

BT98.A65                  St. Augustine. The City of God.   New York: The Modern Library, 1950.

BJ1400.T4813           St. Thomas Aquainas.  On Evil.  Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre

Dame Press, 1995.

HQ21H37                  Hays, Hoffmann R.  The Dangerous Sex: The Myth of Feminine Evil.

                       New York: Pocket Book, 1964

QL775L6813              Lorenz, Konrad.  On Aggression. [Actual title should read: The So-called  Evil: Concerning the Natural History of Aggression].  New York: Harcourt, Brace, & World, 1966.

BS2555.6.D5.P34       Pagels, Elaine.  The Origin of Satan.  New York: Random House, 1995.

BJ1401.A67               Parkin, David (ed.)  The Anthropology of Evil.  Basil Blackwell Ltd. 1985

                                            Contents:

   Donald Taylor, Theological thoughts about evil.

   David Pocock, Unruly Evil.

  Alan Macfarlene, The root of all evil.

                          David Rheubottom, The seed of evil within.

   Brian Moeran, Confucian confusion: the good, the bad and the

         noodle western.

   Lionel Caplan, The popular culture of evil in urban south India.

   Martin Southwold, Buddhism and Evil.

                                                  Ronald Inden, Hindu evil as unconquered Lower Self.

   Mark Hobart, Is God Evil?

   John Bousfield, Good, evil, and spiritual power: reflections on

        Sufi teachings.

   Roy Willis, Do the Fipa have a word for it?

   David Parkin, Entitling evil: Muslims and non-Muslims in coastal Kenya.

   Joanna Overing, There is no end of evil: the guilty innocents and

        their fallible god.

BX1749.T48213        Thomas, Aquinas St.  The Summa of the Summa (ed.  by Peter Kreft).  The essential philosophical passages of St. Thomas Aquinas'  Summa Theologica.  San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1952.

BT160.W526             Whitney, Barry L..  What are they saying about God and Evil?   New York: Paulist Press, 1989.

                      

Course Requirements:

Attendance & Participation......30%

 Group or Individual Reports.....10%

Book review................................20%

(See Home my Home Page for format)

*Journal............................................40%

 

*Indicates that a journal entry is required for this assignment.

   This must include a summary of the reading assignment and a reaction or discussion of an element of the work that caught your interest.  The journal entries must be separate  from your regular notes should be typed.  You must mark each journal entry clearly e.g. 

                                                   I.  The Problem of Evil

                                                        A. The Problem stated

                                                        B.  St. Augustine's view of evil

                                                        C.  St. Thomas='view of evil

                                                        D.  Reaction to an idea

                                                   II.  Natural Evil

                                                        A.  The devil as the source of natural Evil

                                                        B.   Matter as evil

                                                        C.    Reaction

 

 

Attendance:

Please keep in mind that there are a total of 35 class periods  in the semester. That amounts to less than 40 actual contact hours. In order to get the best possible use of the time, you must attend all class sessions. I realize that there may be times when an unexpected event may keep you from coming to class.  If such an emergency should arise you are responsible for all work and assignments missed.  In such a case the following  information applies:

          1.  Contact one or more members of the class to ascertain what was done on the day you missed class.  Then write a summary of the main ideas or topics discussed  in class. The summary must be concise and thorough and consist of a minimum of two typed pages (double spaced).   You may include your own thoughts and reflections in the summary.                                                                                                                      

          2.  Should you fail to submit the summary within two days 3% (three percent) will be deducted from your participation and preparation grade.

 

          3.  After three absences, however, your final grade will be lowered by one letter grade. Thus if you have a B at the end of the semester it will turn into a

                                                     S   Y   L   L   A   B   U   S

Day 1   Introduction to the course and the problem of evil.

Video: The Making of the Sixties

                         Assignments for day 2:

A. Select one or two of the quotes on evil and explain why they appealed to you. 

                            These quotes may be found on my Home Page under Quotes on Evil 

B. Try to determine the structure or major themes in the various quotes.

 

 

Day 2     Discussion of the quotes on Thoughts on Evil.

 

                       Assignment for day 3

Read:   Whitney, Barry L..  What are they saying about God and Evil?  pp.  1-15.

Make a list of the major concepts on evil presented by White.  Be sure to include a short definition or summary of the following:  Formulation of the problem of evil, moral & physical evil, faith solution, existential & theoretical problem of evil.

 

Day 3            Video: Bill Moyer=s Facing Evil

 

Assignment for day 4

Read:  Vardy, Peter.  The Puzzle of Evil, The Problem Stated  pp.  13-20   

St. Augustine. The City of God     St. Thomas Aquainas.  On Evil.  pp.  414- 416  

    St. Augustine. The City of God pp.  507-508

           

 

Day 4            Discussion of Vardy, St.  Augustine & St. Thomas

 

Assignment for day 5 & 6

Read:  Vardy, Peter.  The Puzzle of Evil,   A God's Eye View pp. 21-36

                                                                 The Free Will Defence pp. 37-53

       

 

Day 5 & 6  Discussion of Free Will and evil from a theocentric perspective.

 

Day 7          Review of what we have covered so far.

 

Assignment for day 8-9-10-11

Read Hesse's Demian: The Story of Emil Sinclair's Youth.

NOTE: We are reading this novel because it contains many of the ideas that we will discuss later in greater detail. In order to better understand the work you should become familiar with the following ideas and people:

1.  Events in Europe at the turn of the century and World War I.

2.  The Bible AGenesis@

3.  Gnosticism, Mysticism and Zoroastrianism. 

4.  Free will and determinism

5.  Id, Ego and Superego

6.  The collective unconscious, archetypes, shadow,  anima and  individuation.

 

Questions for Discussion:

1.  What is the function of the last paragraph in the APrologue?

What is its relationship to the description ABut every man is more than just himself...only once in this way and never again.@

2. There are many references to stories found in the Bible,

but none of them seem to fit with the more traditional views with which Emil has grown up.  What functions do these different interpretation play in the   development of Emil? 

Think back to your first Jude-Christian course and try to remember how various individuals approach the Bible.  3.  What is free will and why does Demian say that it does not exist?  Explain. 4.  What does Demian say about religion, God and the Devil in chapter #3 (Among Thieves 

 

Days  8, 9, 10 & 11  Discussion of Hesse's Demian               

 

            Assignment for day 12

  

Vardy, Peter.  The Puzzle of Evil,  Natural Evil, pp. 54-70

 

 

 

                       Assignment for day 13, 14 &15

 

 Johann Wolfgang Goethe Faust Part I (Prologue in Heaven) and The Book of Job (Prologue):  Theme: The nature of suffering and evil in the two prologues.

The following entries are due for Goethe's Faust (select two for your journal)   

A.  Give a short summary of The Book of Job

B.  Views of Satan in the Old and New Testament.

C.  Please read the following passage carefully, then comment on its implications: Progress and The individual.  Viewed in this perspective of universal human significance, FAUST is the first symbolic drama in world literature to appraise the role of the individual-his liberty, initiative, and integrity-within a society that is bent on material and spiritual progress. Faust's nature is characterized by the words he speaks in his old  age:

 

            Thus he may wander through his earthly day;

            Heedless of ghosts, let him pursue his way,

            In his progression agony and joy,

            At every moment still dissatisfied.

These words exemplify a concept of limitless progress. They apply to a type of man particularly adapted to a world of practical considerations: the active man, the efficient man, the resolute  man, who has not even begun to exhaust the resources of this planet and who is therefore spurred on to ever greater discoveries, achievements-and disappointments. There may be moments in the life of such an individual in which he finds himself in conflict with his community. Organized society may either stimulate of stifle individual initiative; and powerful individual initiative, if it is not properly balanced and controlled, may produce, not a genius, but a criminal.

 

Faust possesses the potentialities of both the genius and the criminal. In this play Faust is not presented as an individual consistently advancing to ever higher levels of intellect and morality. On the contrary, as the play unfolds, Faust's development seems to be the very opposite of such progress.Nevertheless, as he is held back, or sometimes even driven forward, by his own failings, he represents in his activities a crusade much greater than his career: the upward course of the human race. The evolution of human culture is comparable to that of organisms-except that man's progress is contingent upon the development of moral freedom and therefore upon an increase of wisdom and a limitation of individual license and selfishness. The words of the Lord in the Prolog apply equally to Faust and to Man in general:

 

            A good man in his darkest aberration,

            Of the right path is conscious still.

 

[The actual meaning of this passage implies that deep within the self, a good person always knows what is good or right]

Not until the reader has realized this, will he become aware that he is observing Faust on a path of action that leads, not from imperfection to perfection, nor from guilt to atonement, but from a state of dull confusion to a state of increasing clarity which is, after all, the natural progress of individual as well as general human culture in the course of history.

 

D.  Comment on the following thesis: A Goethe's Faust comes close to being an investigation of evil alone, rather than an interplay between good and evil.  Yet,  ultimately, only love is capable of saving Faust from being engulfed in evil.

 

Days 13, 14 & 15   Discussion of Goethe=s Faust

 

                        Assignment for days 16, 17 & 18

Read Dürrenmatt's The Physicists

 

Days 16, 17 & 18  Discussion of The Physicists

 

 

 

 Assignment for day 19              

Tolstoy, Leo.  God Sees the Truth, and Waits.

Vardy, Peter.  The Puzzle of Evil, Is it All Worth It? pp. 71-79

 

Day 19          Discussion of Tolstoy  and Vardy

 

                        Assignment for day 20

Read:  Read:  Bertrand Russel,  Why I am not a Christian. 

 

Day 20           Discussion of Russel

 

      Assignment for day 21

Read: Fyodor Dostoevsky, Excerpts from:   The Brothers Karamozov

                                                                     The Grand Inquisitor & Rebellion  

Day 21            Discussion of Dostoevsky

 

  Assignment for day 22

 Read Vardy, The Euthyphro Dilemma pp. 91-99

 

 

Day 22            Discussion of Euthyphro and the Divine Command Theory.

 

 Assignment for Days 23 & 24.   Theme: Evil in Behavioral Research

 

 Read:  Lorenz, Konrad.  On Aggression.  (Selections only)

 Select one major concept from Konrad and write a reaction to it.

 

 

Days 23 & 24  Discussion of Konrad.  You will be asked to read short selections from your journal entries.

 

          Assignment for Days 25, 26 & 27 Theme: Psychoanalytic Perspective on Evil

          Read:  Freud (inborn inclination of evil)

          Jung (integration of evil)                    

           Fromm (tragedy of evil)

 

Days 25, 26 & 27

Discussion of Freud, Jung and Fromm.

 

1.  Write a paragraph each on the views of Freud, Jung and Fromm

2.   In another paragraph comment on a view that most appeals to you.

 

 

Assignment for Days 28, 29, 30:  Three contemporary perspectives on evil

 

Day 28          Liberation Theology