Good and evil, Suffering -- religious aspects -- Catholic Church 

The Twentieth Century Encyclopedia of Catholicism 

"For every thinking and reflecting man the existence of evil is a riddle he cannot escape," writes the author. "The world as a whole, in virtue of the order and beauty which fill it, seems to us to be the work of a wonderful intelligence which has organized it all. . . . Then we meet, in a twofold form, what we call evil: we find suffering in the world, and sometimes cruel suffering, physical or mental . . . and realize that some sufferings are the result of wrong that has been done . . . a disorder introduced voluntarily, by a free decision, into the divine handiwork . . . and we ask, 'How can God allow all this?'"

The author, Francois Petit, a priest and professor of theology, has here studied evil in the framework of theology, and its practical consequences in the light of Christian teaching. He holds that the problem of evil is insoluble apart from ideas of the Fall and redemption. The volume is designed to summarize Christian doctrine in which "evil, itself an absence of being, becomes, by the void that it creates, an appeal to God and to the divine action."

Solutions to the problem of evil suggested in ancient myths are analyzed together with the solutions proposed by philosophers. Then the data of the Old Testament is surveyed to determine the relations between evil and sin. The New Testament, the contributions of St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, and the whole of Catholic tradition are also probed for meanings of evil.

Theology, the author feels, can suggest means to draw benefits from evil by way of prevention, reparation and by making full use of the dynamic power of evil situations to test and to perfect, with moral theology offering practical means to prepare for suffering and to relieve the suffering of others.

The problem of evil is never fully solved, and there are gaps between the intellectual understanding of the problem and the personal and emotional difficulties in the evil situation. Although "the mystery persists . . . it is one which the divine essence in its infinite goodness illuminates without destroying. We are half-way up the mountain on the shaded side," the author says, "but on the other slope the sun has risen and already the sky is full of light."

Francios Petit is the religious name of Camille Marie Louis Petit. He lives at the Abbeye de Mondaye, at Juaye-Mondaye in the Department of Calvados, France. He is the author of a number of books, beginning with L'Ordre de Premontre, in 1927, St. Norbert, fondateur de L'Ordre de Premontre, 1929, and La Spiritualite des Premontres aux XIIe et XIIIe, 1945. He was a cure (Seine and Oise) from 1942 to 1954, and holds a licentiate in letters and a doctorate in theology from the Intitut Catholique de Paris. He was born in Tulle in 1894.

This is Volume 20 under section II, The Basic Truths.

Taken from the inside flaps.