21 levels of Self-Deception: THIRD EDITION by Tom Wallace - HTML preview

T W E N T Y - O N E L E V E L S

experiences is illusory. Mainstream Christianity feels the need to separate evil from the rest of creation. It denies evil a real existence in a way and claims that it is just a distortion of good and that it will ultimately be defeated. But none of these solutions seem to offer much help. We are obliged to admit that there is pain and sadness but we do not want to accept them in our life, far less in the world generally.

To summarise then: I am just me — not good or bad in myself. However, I am also a person set within a context — some kind of human culture or community. It is in that context that I might be viewed as either good or bad and my individual acts can be judged to be one or the other. (It is in this context that ‘becoming’ over ‘being’ takes on its true significance.) There is always a balance to be struck between how much accommodation I am willing or able to make. Likewise, in dealing with others, there is a sense in which the real person stands outside any judgement of goodness or badness. Within the context of the human economy however, a measure of responsibility to act rightly can be assigned and a measure of blame if the values of the human economy fail to be upheld. Within the economy of grace the person is seen just as a person — beautiful in essence aside from any right or wrong. A person always deserving our compassionate response. This is surely our toughest decision. For if the soul is perfect and the character of a person is all that it ever needs to be, then at what point does evil enter into the equation? Is it nothing more that a particular culture’s interpretation of right and wrong? This is the question often posed of religion — how could a good God allow evil? — but it is bringing

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