Evil and Christian Ethics

Theology Today, Jul 2002 by Nelson, Susan L

Evil and Christian Ethics By Gordon Graham New York, Cambridge University Press, 2001. 241 pp. $65.00.

In the face of the events of September 11, 2001, there has been a renewed interest in the nature and meaning of evil, in appropriate moral response in a world where such evil is a possibility, and in the grounds for hope that such evil can indeed be overcome. In Evil and Christian Ethics, the twentieth volume in the series New Studies in Christian Ethics, Gordon Graham argues that the Christian narrative of the cosmic war between good and evil can provide our world with a more adequate basis for understanding and resisting evil than other alternatives that the modern world offers. Graham, whose numerous publications cover a wide range of disciplines, is Regius Professor of Moral Philosophy at the University of Aberdeen.

To make his case, Graham argues, first, that what makes Christian ethics distinctive (and more adequate than the secular approaches that he uses as his foils) is not what we do, but why we do what we do. What sets Christian ethics apart from other ethical approaches, he argues, is not what Christians value ("Modern morality consists in a set of values and principles that ... are broadly endorsed by all humankind, Christian and non-Christian") but the meaning that Christians assign to that value. The Christian narrative places human history within the larger context of a cosmic battle between good and evil, where we are assured that evil does not have the last word. Graham argues, "Only a theological (supernatural) account of experience can explain and justify the requirement to take morality seriously." If "without God, and theologically interpreted conceptions of good and evil (some of them pre-modern), what we call moral endeavor is fruitless, and all references to moral obligation are, consequently, without adequate foundation," then, Graham believes, the Christian narrative offers the modern world the motivation and the confidence to resist evil.

But what grounds do we have to think that modern people (who are by definition skeptical of supernatural referents, be they miraculous or demonic) will find the Christian narrative-a cosmic battle between good and evil, between God and Satan-at all compelling? Do modern persons even entertain the notion of absolute evil, or is evil ultimately explained away as disease or as the cost of the good? And what sense can the modern world make of a spirit of evil: an agency "independent of human beings whose activity is to be described in language of ... intentions, aims and purposes"? Arguing from the cases of multiple murderers and from the events at Columbine High School in April 1999, Graham shows how these examples of evil can best be interpreted not as acts of madness but as the willful, intentional acts of rational but susceptible people who were seduced by the power of evil. Then, drawing on accounts of people's desire to pray-to ask for supernatural help in the face of such evil-- Graham argues that supernatural agency may not be as alien to contemporary people as modern thinkers expect.

Graham's argument to ground human hope and ethical activity in a providential God and in the assurance of the victory of good over evil won by Jesus Christ is convincingly made. It can be affirmed in the voices of liberation and feminist ethicists and theologians, as well as in the lives of martyrs of the church, who have found in the crucified and risen God a source of hope for their endeavors against regimes of evil. Graham's argument is intensely intricate, even elegant. Each chapter draws on a wealth of references, some of which those not trained in philosophy might find daunting. This need not, however, deter pastors and students of theology from taking on the challenge. There is great satisfaction to be gained in mastering the precision of Graham's argument. His chapter on "the real Jesus" offers a compelling argument for the use of theological language for the historical Jesus. His analysis of the Columbine tragedy will prove helpful to any who minister to youth. While not all may find his argument for Satan convincing, his insistence that evil is real, that there is a spirit that intends evil in the world and that people can be vulnerable to seduction toward evil purposes by such a spirit, poses a serious challenge for all serious Christian thinkers.

SUSAN L. NELSON

Pittsburgh Theological Seminary

Pittsburgh, PA