Evil is not from God
From Monachos Patristic Quotations Index
Contents |
Scripture
Ephesians
- Ephesians 6.12: Our wrestling is not with flesh and blood, but with the spirits of wickedness.
- Ephesians 2.2: Against the ruler of the powers of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience"
St. Athanasius the Great
- From Contra Gentes
- (6.2) "for evil does not come from good, not through good, or the result of good"
- (7.3) "evil is not from God, nor is it in God, nor has it existed from the beginning, nor is it of any substantive existence; but men, in departing from the theoria of the good, began to devise and imagine that which is not, according to their desires"
St. Basil the Great
- From his Homily Explaining that God is Not the Cause of Evil
St Diadochos of Photiki (5th Century)
- 'Evil does not exist by nature, nor is any man naturally evil, for God made nothing that was not good. When in the desire of his heart someone conceives and gives form to what in reality has no existence, then what he desires begins to exist. We should therefore turn our attention away from the inclination to evil and concentrate it on the remembrance of God; for good, which exists by nature, is more powerful than our inclination to evil. The one has existence while the other has not, except when we give it existence through our actions.' (On Spiritual Knowledge and Discrimination: One Hundred Texts, 3, in the Philokalia, vol 1, p. 253)
Editing Notes
- Origen, third-century has a response similar to St. Basil on this topic. If anyone knows of it.
