Made By God Touched By Evil Thirsty Theologians
Made By God / Touched By Evil Thirsty Theologians October 27, 2020 Terry Wimberley
Created In the Image of God � Genesis 1: 27 God created humankind in God’s image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.
Plagued With Evil � Jeremiah 17: 9 “The heart is more deceitful than all else And is desperately sick; Who can understand it? � Matthew 15: 19 For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders. � Romans 3: 10 None is righteous, no not one.
Thomas Hobbes on Human Nature � Hobbes believed that in man’s natural state, moral ideas do not exist. Thus, in speaking of human nature, he defines good simply as that which people desire and evil as that which they avoid, at least in the state of nature. Hobbes uses these definitions as bases for explaining a variety of emotions and behaviors.
Leviathan And The State of Mankind � It is manifest that during the time men live without a common power to keep them all in awe, they are in that condition which is called war; and such a war is of every man against every man. . . In such condition there is no place for industry, because the fruit thereof is uncertain: and consequently no culture of the earth; no navigation, nor use of the commodities that may be imported by sea; no commodious building; no instruments of moving and removing such things as require much force; no knowledge of the face of the earth; no account of time; no arts; no letters; no society; and which is worst of all, continual fear, and danger of violent death; and the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.
Rousseau On Human Nature � He believed that people in the state of nature were innocent and at their best and that they were corrupted by the unnaturalness of civilization. � In the state of nature, people lived entirely for themselves, possessed an absolute independence, and were content. � Emotion rules human action not reason.
John Locke on Human Nature � Locke believed that human nature is characterized by reason and tolerance. � Like Hobbes, Locke believed that human nature allowed people to be selfish. � Locke assumed that the sole right to defend in the state of nature was not enough, so people established a civil society to resolve conflicts.
Sum of Human Nature � Divine & Evil: Fallen, evil though initially good. (Bible) � Amoral: Devoid of any sense of the “moral. ” Living a life of “continual fear, and danger of violent death” … “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short. ” (Hobbes) � Innocent: Living entirely for themselves, content in possessing an absolute independence. (Rousseau) � Rational: Human nature is characterized by reason and tolerance. Capable of being selfish. (Locke)
Flannery O’Connor: Touched by Evil � Wrote about the South. (Wise Blood. The Violent Bear it Away) � Her work could be described as dealing with the “grotesque” to includes disturbing content. � O’Connor’s fiction is full of scenarios that now have the feel of mid-century myths: an evangelist preaching the gospel of a Church Without Christ outside a movie house; a grandmother shot by an escaped convict at the roadside; a Bible salesman seducing a female “interleckshul” in a hayloft and taking her wooden leg.
O’Connor’s Theology of the Grotesque � "It makes a great difference to the look of a novel whether its author believes that the world came late into being and continues to come by a creative act of God, or whether he believes that the world and ourselves are the product of a cosmic accident. It makes a great difference to his novel whether he believes that we are created in God's image, or whether he believes we create God in our own. It makes a great difference whether he believes that our wills are free, or bound like those of the other animals. "
The Purpose of the Grotesque � "In these grotesque works, we find that the writer has made alive some experience which we are not accustomed to observe every day, or which the ordinary man may never experience in his ordinary life. [. . . ] If the novelist is in tune with this [modern] spirit, if he believes that actions are predetermined by psychic make-up or the economic situation or some other determinable factor [. . . ] Such a writer may produce a great tragic naturalism, for by his responsibility to the things he sees, he may transcend the limitations of his narrow vision.
Touched by Evil � Critics argue that for O’Connor to have written such “dark” works that she herself must have been “touched by evil” to have had the vision to write in her particular Southern Gothic style.
O’Connor: Life’s Distortions � The novelist with Christian concerns will find in modern life distortions which are repugnant to him, and his problem will be to make these appear as distortions to an audience which is used to seeing them as natural. � O’Connor here acknowledges a central feature of human existence. “Distortions which are repugnant (evil) will appear as novel to those who have not been touched by evil but “natural” to those whose lives have been immersed in “life’s distortion. ”
Human Existence With All Its Horror � This assertion, taken together with O’Connor’s assertion that the central mystery is why human existence “has, for all its horror, been found by God to be worth dying for, ” constitutes the following argument: � (1) from the Christian viewpoint, the modern human condition is filled with a peculiar horror; � (2) therefore, to fictionally depict humans in their peculiarly horrifying aspect is necessary in order to explore the mysteries of redemption and grace.
Being Christian And Being Cognizant of the Repugnant � The problem is that the Christian viewpoint does not necessitate a heightened sensitivity to that which is loathsome about humans or modern times. � A heightened love of humans and the lives they create for themselves could just as easily be argued.
Is O’Connor Herself Repugnant? � Some readers may find that here O’Connor is herself repugnant: that they are faced with one of those people for whom the misery and injustice of human affairs is chiefly a source of egocentric intellectual gratification, and whose political and moral instincts are distorted accordingly.
Touched by Evil and Loss of Innocence � The Genesis story is the original story of loss of innocence when humans are touched by evil. � O’Connor’s work literally drag’s its readers through the evil, vile sinful and debased of the society – highlighting humanity’s “underbelly. ”
Resistance to O’Connor’s Work � Resistance to O’Connor’s work in great part comes from people who don’t want to to be confronted with the grotesque and evil in society and who find O’Connor to be grotesque for purveying the worst in human nature to elevate her status as a writer and cultural icon.
Christians Avoid the Grotesque � Because it is a “drag” on living happily and in grace. � They fear being drawn to the “dark side” (they might like the darkness). � They want others to think well of them. � They fear losing control of their lives if they too closely experience the darkness of the world.
But What About Those Touched By Evil � Victims of Crime � Soldiers in combat � Abused and neglected children and adults � Victims of fraud � Law enforcement officers � How are they changed by their experiences?
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