Wednesday, August 15, 2007

does good need evil?

although i am studying a wide range to subjects, they tend to overlap in terms of critical theories. a few weeks ago, i first came across the Manichean (pronounced as many-ki-ian) allegory in the postcolonial literature where the dichotomy is drawn between the colonizer and the colonized others.

i came across it again in a medieval studies subject in the context of the religion itself, Manichaeism, where St Augustine was as a former follower of Mani.

then i recalled that when i was younger, i have in fact stumbled upon the doctrine of Manichaeism just that i didn't know that it was called as such. i came across the concept in Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Prachett. it depicts a comic view of judgement day with the anti-christ as the protagonist. the anti-christ however, has the most anti-climatic aura.

the disturbing under current of the story however is that as the Manichean concepts goes, Christ/the heavens/God needs the Lucifer/hell/the devil in other to create "a balance in the force" so to speak. in order for God's redemptive plan to come to fruition, the input of Judas, and the persecuting Jews and the "bad guys" were required. its like how without criminals, the police force will cease to exist.

i could see the point of such a critique but i was unable to formulate a counter argument, that is until i read St Augustine's collection of writings in City of God. having had been a Manichean himself, St Augustine was well versed with its mechanics.

in a nutshell, St Augustine asserts that "good may exist on its own, but evil cannot." such a statement does away with the good/evil dichotomy, and the alleged interdependence of good and evil to put each other in place.

in the follow up to his assertion, St Augustine elucidates that,

"the very fact that perversions are perversions is a proof that such natures are in themselves good; if they were not good these faults would not harm them...If there is no good there at all, there is nothing for perversion to destroy; and if no harm can be done, there can be no perversion. The conclusion is that although a fault cannot hurt unchangeable good, it cannot hurt anything except a good of something, since it only exists where it does harm. It may be put in this way: a fault cannot exist in the Highest Good, but it cannot exist except in some kind of good."

quotes within the parenthesis comes from: St Augustine. The City of God. England: Penguin Books, 1972, p. 474

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