The question of evil... (2)

C. S. Lewis famously suggested two errors when people thought and spoke about the devil.
  • That of imagining him or it as a being equal and opposite to God or to Jesus. The danger outlined is that of an excessive interest and expectation that a satanic influence and activity is behind every problem.
  • That of sneering and mocking the idea of the demonic. The comic caricature conjured from medieval art is probably the foundation of much of the embarrassed dumbing down of any talk of the demonic. NT Wright points to the irony that it was left-wing political theologians who reclaimed a theology of satan in the understanding of systematic failure as being evil.
Finding a position between the two extremes causes a tension that is worth exploring. I blame Constantine - he seems to get the blame for everything else!!!?

Wright, N.T (2003) The Resurrection of the Son of God (Christian Origins and the Question of God)

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