Good and evil

• Conscience


  The knowledge we have of what is right and what is wrong. It is given to all of us by God to guide us to do what is right and to avoid what is evil.
• Evil

  A lack of goodness. It is the actions that we take which result in the suffering of others for our own pleasure or gain.
• Free will

  The decision making part of a person’s mind is called the will. We have freewill if we are able to choose right from wrong without being controlled by other forces.
• Goodness


  The quality of being like God, good people will try to help others without expecting anything in return.
• Incarnation


  This means “Made flesh”. It is the Christian belief that God became man in the person of Jesus, fully human and fully divine.
• Natural law


  The belief that God has built into all of us a knowledge of what is right and what is wrong, it is part of our human nature. What is right and wrong can be discovered by everyone and stays the same for all people no matter the place or time.
• Privation


  The absence or lack of a certain quality, for example; darkness is the absence of light. St Augustine said that evil is the absence of good.
• Suffering 


  Pain or loss which harms human beings. Some suffering is caused by other human beings (often called moral evil); some is caused by nature
• St Augustine on evil

  Evil helps us appreciate good.

  God, who is good would not allow evil to exist as he is omnipotent he can bring good out of evil

  Evil is a lack of goodness – it doesn’t exist

  “Disease and wounds mean nothing but the absence of health”

  Evil and suffering exist because of free-will
• Nicene creed


  God the Father  - one God, creator

  God the Son – is consubstantial with the Father, incarnate, suffered death, rose again, will come again to judge the living and the dead

  Holy Spirit – giver of life and has spoken through the prophets

  Church is one, holy Catholic and Apostolic

  We believe in the resurrection of the dead and the world to come – belief in afterlife.
• Trinity

  The Trinity is a Mystery – it cannot be fully understood.

  2.There is only one God

  3.God exists as three persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

  4.Each of these three persons is different from the other two.

  5.Each of these persons is fully God.

  6.But, there are not three god.
• Incarnation beliefs

  The word (Jesus – son of God) existed before time.

  Jesus is God and is with God – Trinity

  As part of the Trinity Jesus is responsible for Creation as he is God.

  God became flesh in the person of Jesus and lived among us.

  Jesus makes God known to us by coming the earth as a human.
• Sermon on the mount


  Jesus goes up a mountain

  He gives a listed of the blessed(happy) e.g. Merciful, mourners, persecuted etc

  He then goes on to say he hasn’t come to change the law but fulfil it. He encourages Christians to go beyond a checklist

  You have heard that it was said do not murder now I tell you do not even get angry

  You have heard that it was said do not commit adultery now I tell you do not look lustfully at another.
• Salvific dolores

  Redemptive or saving suffering
• Jesus praying in the Garden of Gethsemane


  Offering his suffering to God
• Pope John Paul II: 'Wants Catholics to offer their suffering to God like Jesus did'
• Offering suffering to God


  • Enables support from God
  • Realise they can suffer for the sake of others
• Salvific dolores: 'Divine love has been given by God to man in the cross of Jesus Christ'
• Suffering


  Can show God's love and omnibenevalence
• Salvific dolores: 'Those who share in Christ's sufferings have before their eyes the paschal mystery of the cross and resurrection'
• Suffering


  Enables people to become more Christ-like
• Salvific dolores: 'In this weakness there is accomplished his lifting up confirmed by the power of the resurrection'
• Human suffering


  Can be defeated by the power of God through Jesus' death and resurrection
• Theodicy


  Arguments which try to show God still exists and is great even though there is evil and suffering in the world
• Evil


  Not a thing, but rather a lack or absence of goodness (privation)
• When God created the world in Genesis, it was "very good"
• God created humans with free will


  Humans misused their free will, leading to evil and the privation of goodness
• God sent His only Son to die for everyone's sins, showing His benevolence
• God allows evil to remain as a fair punishment, and to allow us to appreciate the good by comparison
• Augustine argues that moral evil can be explained by the human misuse of free will, and natural evil can be attributed to the destruction of the natural order by Adam and Eve
• Kenosis


  A Greek word meaning 'to empty' or 'to empty out'
• Kenosis

  • The idea that Jesus gave up or emptied himself of some of his Divine qualities when he became human
  • Linked to the idea of transcendence - God is above and beyond space and time, but Jesus lived on Earth as a human
• Philippians: 'Emptied himself'
• Kenosis hymn

  Found in the Bible in Philippians, written by St Paul, emphasizes what it means for God to take on human form in the person of Jesus
• Kenosis hymn

  • Refers to Jesus as a servant, who came to serve people not rule over them
  • States that Jesus was 'born in the likeness of men', linking to the Incarnation and Virgin birth
  • Describes Jesus as 'humble', showing he did not see himself as better than others
  • States Jesus was 'obedient unto death, even death on a cross', revealing his ultimate sacrifice
• Kenosis hymn

  Reveals the nature of God and Jesus, showing that Jesus is the Incarnation - God in human form
• The kenosis hymn is important because it shows how God wants a relationship with humanity, provides an example of how Catholics should love and serve others, and reveals God's Omni benevolence in becoming man to save humanity from sin
• Incarnation


  The Christian belief that God became man in the person of Jesus
• The word Incarnation literally means "made flesh"
• The Incarnation is the belief that God is in the flesh in the person of Jesus