Reconsidering evil : confronting Reflections with Confessions

Abstract

The notion of evil is not undisputed in contemporary philosophy and theology. Reconsidering Evil attempts a regauging of this notion by comparing four different approaches to the theme of evil. Paul Ricœur’s approach via symbols of evil provides a focus that enables an analysis and comparison of the highly reflective views of Immanuel Kant, Karl Jaspers and Karl Barth – who represent an ethical, tragic and a non-theodician theological view respectively. This book sets out to determine whether one can claim that speaking of evil is most at home in a specific way of thinking, with the hypothesis that the latter will turn out to be a religious way of thinking. In the final chapter the notion of "the end of evil" turns out to be very important for understanding the specific character of a religious view of evil. In comparison with Kant's ethical view and Jaspers' tragic one, the broadest or richest understanding of evil is to be found in a religious context. However, this comparison also shows the possible dangers of a religious view. Thus, by means of an in-depth analysis of these thinkers, the relevance of the theme of evil for present-day philosophy of religion is critically examined.