I am not a fan of modern theology, which I view as little more than Christian spergs engaged in pointless arguments over whose axiomatic assumptions are, or are not, justified by something that somebody else wrote at some point in the past, the further back the better. I also find most theology to be entirely beside the point, particularly when it comes to addressing the most material and observable aspect of Christian life on this particular planet, which is to say the fact that evil permeates every aspect of human experience.
While there have been a few lackluster attempts at constructing “a theology of evil”, most of them do nothing more than circle around back to yet another rhetorical apologetic. Instead of analyzing evil in any meaningful way, the subject is dropped as soon as possible in favor of anything from the existence to the sovereignty of God.
Theology of evil shows how darkness runs rampant in our world like a tornado by swooping up anything in its midst and attempting to destroy it. Though evil is something that is very much a reality of our lives as humans, it doesn’t mean that it can prevent us from accomplishing God’s purpose….
God’s sovereignty used to be something that brought me discomfort because I did not fully understand his character in full. As a child, I wanted a perfect life where all my desires were fulfilled, and that pain didn’t occur.
In short, I was selfish just like all of humanity. The turning point for me was when I began having a deep intimate relationship with Christ and came to the realization that this life is not my own.
We can get so caught up in the fact that evil happens to a point where we lose sight of His character. He is a God who loves, is powerful, all know, omnipresent, and sovereign. This is why it is important to briefly understand why evil occurs because when we do it brings us closer to our heavenly Father.
For some reason, many attempts to construct a theology of evil somehow results in the Christian talking about himself and his sins. This is not even remotely helpful. And after thinking about the matter, I realized that the problem is with the concept itself. After all, “a theology of evil” is about explaining how evil fits within the grand master plan of God; it is a study of God, not evil. And “a philosophy of evil” isn’t much more helpful, as we not only know that evil exists, we know why it exists.
I considered the idea of a taxonomy, which after all is how I constructed the socio-sexual hierarchy, but that didn’t quite fit with what I had in mind either.
Then it occurred to me that there already was a perfectly functional word to describe a list of features and functions. In the game industry, we used to utilize Redbook audio, and it turns out there is an entire line of Redbook content developed and published by IBM Garage, which is intended to “develop and deliver skills, technical know-how, and materials to IBM technical professionals, Business Partners, clients, and the marketplace in general.”