No description available.

The purpose of this essay is to study the book of Job from the Old Testament, in order to establish the potential evil of God looking at it with the utilitarianism of John Stuart Mill. I will chart the ethical dilemmas that I can find in the book of Job with a hermeneutic method. I am using a qualitative method in order to penetrate deeper into the potential dilemmas that can be found. I am then looking at the ethical dilemmas that can be found from a utilitarian perspective in order to judge the actions of God as right or wrong. In order to define if God is good or evil, I make a definition of evil with help from Christian ethics, exegetics and philosophy. The potential evil of God is in this way defined through utilitarianism and Christian ethics. I later put the utilitarian values that I’ve distinguished through a hermeneutic method against the Christian outlook on life that is mentioned in the Swedish national curriculum Lgr11. The hard thing about using the book of Job is that it belongs to the Old Testament, while Christian ethics are usually based on the New Testament. The book of Job is often defined as metaphorical literature, or literature containing a moral message about the trust and faith that every man should have in God.

<p>Abstract</p><p>C.S. Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia (there are seven books all together) are often perceived as children’s books that in a simple and uncomplicated way convey the positive message of Christianity. However, Lewis’s intention was as much to deal with negative moral issues such as selfishness, dishonesty, betrayal, cruelty, vindictiveness and hypocrisy, in other words: aspects of evil. The purpose of this essay is to examine C.S. Lewis’s portrayal of evil in the Chronicles of Narnia, in order to show the novel’s complexity. My main focus will be on one of the lesser known of the books, The Horse and His Boy.</p><p>I believe that Lewis through his books convey the complexity of live, but through a perspective which makes it easier for children to accept. All the ingredients of real life are included in the Chronicles, even the ugly side to life, namely evil. By displaying the phenomenon of evil in so many different ways in his books, I believe that Lewis is trying to show the complexity which lies in the workday world as well as in heaven and the world of fantasy. Lewis uses evil as an expression to encourage the moral imagination within the readers. I believe that he urges his readers to take a stand and see what evil is and what it does. Lewis demonstrates that good and evil is in each and every one of us, and that it is the choices we make that defines us.</p>

<p>Ondska kan ta många former vi finner det varje dag i tidningar, på TV och i mötet med andra människor. Var kommer då ondska ifrån? I de fyra världsreligionerna finns det skildringar av ondska som kan tyckas lätta att förstå. Men det finns en djupare förklaring till det som står att läsa. Alla religioner har en uppfattning om etik och moral, om att leva ett gott liv och vad man ska göra för att uppnå det. Likaså har alla religioner exempel i berättelser på hur etik och moral kan ta form. Alla dessa berättelser är viktiga för varje religion och de kan hjälpa till att skildra för den oinsatte hur man förhåller sig till vad som är gott och ont. I judedomen så har man Purim en berättelse om hur judarna undkom ett grymt öde genom att de räddades av en judisk drottning av ett land där man inte tillbad den judiske guden. Islam har berättelsen om Karbala där den modige och rättrådige Husayn kämpade för det som var gott mot den onde och illvillige Yazid där i slutändan ytterst få av Husayns familj och vänner, såväl kvinnor som barn överlevde martyrdöden i öknen vi Karbala. Sedan så har vi hinduismen där den gudomlige Ram ger sig ut på en resa för att rensa världen från ont i Ramayana efter att ha blivit fråntagen sin kronprinstitel av en styvmor med ont uppsåt och slutligen dödar demonen Ravan som handlar endast i själviska syften. Och till sist Buddhismen där den unge prins Siddharta som efter att ha ställts inför den mänskliga verkligheten med ålderdom, sjukdom och död väljer att försöka hitta den rätta vägen och till slut bli Buddha. Genom att användandet av enbart litteratur i undersökningen så har frågeställningen i den här uppsatsen besvarats med slutsatsen att ondskan i dessa berättelser hittar man i okunskap och i brist på hängivenhet och tro. Människan måste rannsaka sig själv för att hitta ursprunget till ondskan och för att kunna bekämpa den. Inte i ett ting eller hos en annan person.</p> / <p>Evil can take many forms. We can find it everyday in newspapers, on TV and in meeting with other people. Where does evil come from, one might ask oneself. In the four world religions there are descriptions of evil that might seem easy to understand. But there is a deeper understanding to what is written. Every religion has a perception of ethics and moral, of living a good life and what you have to do to achieve that life. There are also in every religion stories with examples of how morals and ethics take shape. All these stories are important for each religion and they can be of assistance to describe for the unversed how the religion looks upon the question of what is good and what is evil. In Judaism there is Purim, a story about how the Jews escaped a cruel destiny by being saved by a jewish queen of a country where they didn’t worship the jewish god. Islam has the story of Karbala in which the brave and just Husayn fought for what was good against the evil and malicious Yazid and in which just a few of his family and friends survived martyrdom in the end. And then there is Hinduism and the story of the divine Ram, Ramayana, who embarks on a great journey to purify the world from evil after being bereaved of his crown as crown prince by a stepmother with evil intensions and ultimately kills the evil demon Ravan. And finally we have Buddhism and the story of the young prince Siddhartha who, after being presented to the human reality with agedness, sickness and death, chooses to try to find the right path and who ultimately becomes Buddha. Through literary studies the answer to the question formulation of this essay unfolds and the conclusion that the evil in these stories is to be found in ignorance and in the lack of devotion and faith. And that man must search within herself to find the source of evil and to learn how to fight evil. Not in an object or another person.</p>

Abstract C.S. Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia (there are seven books all together) are often perceived as children’s books that in a simple and uncomplicated way convey the positive message of Christianity. However, Lewis’s intention was as much to deal with negative moral issues such as selfishness, dishonesty, betrayal, cruelty, vindictiveness and hypocrisy, in other words: aspects of evil. The purpose of this essay is to examine C.S. Lewis’s portrayal of evil in the Chronicles of Narnia, in order to show the novel’s complexity. My main focus will be on one of the lesser known of the books, The Horse and His Boy. I believe that Lewis through his books convey the complexity of live, but through a perspective which makes it easier for children to accept. All the ingredients of real life are included in the Chronicles, even the ugly side to life, namely evil. By displaying the phenomenon of evil in so many different ways in his books, I believe that Lewis is trying to show the complexity which lies in the workday world as well as in heaven and the world of fantasy. Lewis uses evil as an expression to encourage the moral imagination within the readers. I believe that he urges his readers to take a stand and see what evil is and what it does. Lewis demonstrates that good and evil is in each and every one of us, and that it is the choices we make that defines us.

Ondska kan ta många former vi finner det varje dag i tidningar, på TV och i mötet med andra människor. Var kommer då ondska ifrån? I de fyra världsreligionerna finns det skildringar av ondska som kan tyckas lätta att förstå. Men det finns en djupare förklaring till det som står att läsa. Alla religioner har en uppfattning om etik och moral, om att leva ett gott liv och vad man ska göra för att uppnå det. Likaså har alla religioner exempel i berättelser på hur etik och moral kan ta form. Alla dessa berättelser är viktiga för varje religion och de kan hjälpa till att skildra för den oinsatte hur man förhåller sig till vad som är gott och ont. I judedomen så har man Purim en berättelse om hur judarna undkom ett grymt öde genom att de räddades av en judisk drottning av ett land där man inte tillbad den judiske guden. Islam har berättelsen om Karbala där den modige och rättrådige Husayn kämpade för det som var gott mot den onde och illvillige Yazid där i slutändan ytterst få av Husayns familj och vänner, såväl kvinnor som barn överlevde martyrdöden i öknen vi Karbala. Sedan så har vi hinduismen där den gudomlige Ram ger sig ut på en resa för att rensa världen från ont i Ramayana efter att ha blivit fråntagen sin kronprinstitel av en styvmor med ont uppsåt och slutligen dödar demonen Ravan som handlar endast i själviska syften. Och till sist Buddhismen där den unge prins Siddharta som efter att ha ställts inför den mänskliga verkligheten med ålderdom, sjukdom och död väljer att försöka hitta den rätta vägen och till slut bli Buddha. Genom att användandet av enbart litteratur i undersökningen så har frågeställningen i den här uppsatsen besvarats med slutsatsen att ondskan i dessa berättelser hittar man i okunskap och i brist på hängivenhet och tro. Människan måste rannsaka sig själv för att hitta ursprunget till ondskan och för att kunna bekämpa den. Inte i ett ting eller hos en annan person. / Evil can take many forms. We can find it everyday in newspapers, on TV and in meeting with other people. Where does evil come from, one might ask oneself. In the four world religions there are descriptions of evil that might seem easy to understand. But there is a deeper understanding to what is written. Every religion has a perception of ethics and moral, of living a good life and what you have to do to achieve that life. There are also in every religion stories with examples of how morals and ethics take shape. All these stories are important for each religion and they can be of assistance to describe for the unversed how the religion looks upon the question of what is good and what is evil. In Judaism there is Purim, a story about how the Jews escaped a cruel destiny by being saved by a jewish queen of a country where they didn’t worship the jewish god. Islam has the story of Karbala in which the brave and just Husayn fought for what was good against the evil and malicious Yazid and in which just a few of his family and friends survived martyrdom in the end. And then there is Hinduism and the story of the divine Ram, Ramayana, who embarks on a great journey to purify the world from evil after being bereaved of his crown as crown prince by a stepmother with evil intensions and ultimately kills the evil demon Ravan. And finally we have Buddhism and the story of the young prince Siddhartha who, after being presented to the human reality with agedness, sickness and death, chooses to try to find the right path and who ultimately becomes Buddha. Through literary studies the answer to the question formulation of this essay unfolds and the conclusion that the evil in these stories is to be found in ignorance and in the lack of devotion and faith. And that man must search within herself to find the source of evil and to learn how to fight evil. Not in an object or another person.

Thesis (Ph. L.)--Catholic University of America, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 76-79).

Summary of the Thesis Beliefs oonoerning the origin of evil oan be traoed through primitive stages in the Old Testament, in whioh the "woes" of life were attributed direotly to the hand of God, through later stages in whioh developing moral sensitivity made Old Testament man uneasy about finding the origin of what was morally wrong in God, and finally through the struggles of the Apoorypha and Pseudepigrapha with the question of the origin of moral evil. In the latter, the pressures of Hellenism added to the oomplexity of the problem, sinoe , whether oonsciously or not, these later Jewish thinkers were oaught up in streams of influenoe which shaped the form of their thought , and to some extent its oontent as well. The rise of angelology and demonology in the inter-Testament period can be seen both as evidence for the influence of foreign religious thought, and as an attempt to come to grips with the question o~ where moral evil had its point of origin. We find efforts to cope with the problem of evil not only in the Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha, but also in the thought of Philo , of Qumran, of the Gnostics, and of Rabbinic Judaism, all of which take up positions on the matter , thus pointing out direotions in whioh ' the New Testament declined to move, whioh may be regarded as signifioant. Within the New Testament no unified approach to the problem of evil oan be disoovered , though there is a large fund of oommon assumptions , and in general the thought does not stray from this area of oonsent. The basic position can be described as being in agreement with the Old Testament view in placing the blame for sin on man himself; this is contrary to the direction in which Bome of the Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha are moving, for the latter sometimes seek an outlet for the problem by placing the burden of blame on demonic powers . Although the New Testament knows of demonic forces , and particularly of the l eader of the demons, Satan, the teaching about these demonic powers never obscures the more fundamental responsibility that man bears for his own sinfulness . In the end , the position i s not really far from the Old Testament, where the demons play a very small role indeed; the larger place they have in the New Testament does not seem to include a large share of responsibility for the origin of moral evil. The New Testament brings to clearer expression the Old Testament hesitation to attribute evil to God, and in the main denies outright that moral evil is in any r espect God's responsibility. The Synoptic Gospels and Aots display a good deal of agreement on who is responsible for sinful behavior: man is seen as bringing evil into being bJ' his choice of the wrong rather than the right in a series of ethical and moral decisions. But Matthew and Luke have obviously given much more thought to the problem of ethical and moral behavior than has Mark ; the latter is not so much interested in sin as the former two. Demonic forces bear a larger role in the Synoptic Gospels than anywhere else in the New Testament . Yet, their role is not so large as to make it possible to attribute evil directly to them . The company of demons does not seem to have anything to do with causing moral evil, being limited to the infliction of physical woes; Satan alone influences moral behavior, and he seems to be dependent for his success in temptation upon two factors: the permission of God, and the consent of man. Man brings evil into being by choosing what is contrary to the will of God; this choice of the wrong way may please Satan, but he cannot bring it about apart from human consent. Although Paul is in basic agreement with the Synoptic Gospels on the subject of human responsibility for the origin of moral evil , he approaches the problem of sin from a completely different angle . For him, sin is a force , a power; it is something rising from within and corrupting everything it touches - the Law, the institutions of secular life, and the moral behavior of man. Paul does not explain what initiated this drive toward wrong-doing, though it seems probable that the transgression of Adam enters into the picture. Paul ' s real interest is in the present fact of sin, and more particularly in Christ's victory over the powers of sin and over death, the "wages" of sin. There is frequent mention of "principalities and powers," and it is argued in this thesis that these may plausibly be explained as being the spiritual forces behind God's providential design for governing the world, forces which are not evil in their essential nature, but which have been corrupted by human sin. Paul shows practically no interest in demons which can be compared with those of the Synoptics ; he speaks more often of Satan, but Satan is not really central to his pattern of thought. In essence, moral evil for Paul rises in the clash of will between God and man, and sin is man's choice to seek powers and prerogatives which are properly the Bole possession of God. Jesus shows the way of renunciation of power and self-will as being the only means of victory over sin , and in turn the way to genuine power, by God's gift , and not by seizure. John stylizes the whole problem of sin, abstracting from individual choices of right and wrong, and causing everything to hinge on one great Choice: whether to be a follower of God, or to be a follower of the devil . Ethical choice is still in view, but it is in the background. Predestination is a constantly recurring theme . The stress on God ' s absolute power in determining the affairs of men seems to move John to the brink of attributing the origin of moral evil to God - yet John draws back from this position, and an examination of his more basic assumptions shows that whatever John says about God ' s sovereignty, he intends to convey the impression, that God is seeking the good, the salvation, the redemption of the world, and that man ' s refusal of his proffered salvation is what brings about moral evil and intensifies ,the moral evil which already exists. The devil bears a larger role than elsewhere in the New Testament; yet, John does not seem to believe that the devil oan initiate moral evil among men, but rather that he simply encourages man in sinful behavior. The rest of the New Testament cannot be briefly summarized; eaoh author seems to have some peouliar slant on the origin of sinful behavior. Particular mention might be made of the Book of Revelation, which has a good deal to say about demonic power 's , B.lj.d gives Satan a very important role . But Revelation is not discussing sin and its source , but rather the destruction of sinful powers at the end of the Age . This makes it difficult to come to any co~clusions as to what thought the author may have entertained on the beginnings of moral evil.

This thesis explores the theme of evil in Senecan tragedy through the prism of his Stoic principles, as they are illustrated in his philosophic treatises, with special reference to de ira, de clementia, and naturales quaestiones. The introduction defines evil and situates this study in the historical context of Julio-Claudian rule at Rome. In addition, I sketch the relative chronology of Seneca’s works and chart Seneca’s interest in the myths on display in Greek and Roman tragedy. Chapter One, “The Beast Within,” investigates the contrast of the civilized and uncivilized behaviour of Seneca’s characters in the Phaedra, Thyestes and Hercules Furens. I argue that although Seneca’s characters represent themselves as creatures of civilization and the city in their rejection of wild nature and their embrace of the values of civilization, in their words and actions they repeatedly revert to the wild landscape and bestial appetites that lurk outside the safety of the city walls. In Chapter Two, “Anger,” I examine the emotion of anger as represented in the Medea and compare that tragic exploration with Seneca’s discussion of the emotion in the de ira, where it is called the greatest vice. I conduct an extensive comparative investigation of the language of Seneca’s treatise de ira and his tragedy Medea. Fitch contends that “the dramas do not read like ii negative exemplars designed to warn of the dangers of passion,”1 but I argue that here and elsewhere they do indeed. In Chapter Three on “Cruelty,” I discuss the theme of cruelty in the Troades with reference to the de clementia where Seneca develops the theme of cruelty as the opposite of mercy, in an effort to guide the eighteen-year-old emperor Nero to compassionate rule. However, Seneca takes up the question of cruelty not only in the treatise, but also in his moral epistles and in his tragedies, especially the Troades. There I show that Seneca employs tragedy to hold up a mirror to his audience so that they can see their own behaviour reflected in it. Chapter Four, on “Ghosts and Curses,” takes its starting point from Seneca’s well-known use of ghosts in his tragedies, a feature which had a great influence on Tudor and Jacobean drama. In Senecan tragedy, the presence of ghosts often threatens the safety of the living. I contend that there are four types of ghost in Senecan drama. In the conclusion, I show that Seneca’s tragedies can be read as a criticism of the powerful, and that his Stoic interpretation of human behaviour can be seen throughout his tragedies.

This thesis explores the theme of evil in Senecan tragedy through the prism of his Stoic principles, as they are illustrated in his philosophic treatises, with special reference to de ira, de clementia, and naturales quaestiones. The introduction defines evil and situates this study in the historical context of Julio-Claudian rule at Rome. In addition, I sketch the relative chronology of Seneca’s works and chart Seneca’s interest in the myths on display in Greek and Roman tragedy. Chapter One, “The Beast Within,” investigates the contrast of the civilized and uncivilized behaviour of Seneca’s characters in the Phaedra, Thyestes and Hercules Furens. I argue that although Seneca’s characters represent themselves as creatures of civilization and the city in their rejection of wild nature and their embrace of the values of civilization, in their words and actions they repeatedly revert to the wild landscape and bestial appetites that lurk outside the safety of the city walls. In Chapter Two, “Anger,” I examine the emotion of anger as represented in the Medea and compare that tragic exploration with Seneca’s discussion of the emotion in the de ira, where it is called the greatest vice. I conduct an extensive comparative investigation of the language of Seneca’s treatise de ira and his tragedy Medea. Fitch contends that “the dramas do not read like ii negative exemplars designed to warn of the dangers of passion,”1 but I argue that here and elsewhere they do indeed. In Chapter Three on “Cruelty,” I discuss the theme of cruelty in the Troades with reference to the de clementia where Seneca develops the theme of cruelty as the opposite of mercy, in an effort to guide the eighteen-year-old emperor Nero to compassionate rule. However, Seneca takes up the question of cruelty not only in the treatise, but also in his moral epistles and in his tragedies, especially the Troades. There I show that Seneca employs tragedy to hold up a mirror to his audience so that they can see their own behaviour reflected in it. Chapter Four, on “Ghosts and Curses,” takes its starting point from Seneca’s well-known use of ghosts in his tragedies, a feature which had a great influence on Tudor and Jacobean drama. In Senecan tragedy, the presence of ghosts often threatens the safety of the living. I contend that there are four types of ghost in Senecan drama. In the conclusion, I show that Seneca’s tragedies can be read as a criticism of the powerful, and that his Stoic interpretation of human behaviour can be seen throughout his tragedies.