Violence and Cruelty

Our close relatives, chimpanzees, are known at times to be violent and aggressive. This chapter acknowledges the presence of violence, but challenges the common perception that killing is somehow ‘natural’ to our species. The chapter discusses the capacity for violence and aggression in chimpanzees as it relates to specific types of human violence. How far and to what extent did the first humans begin to show an inordinate capacity for organized violence and cruelty? How should biblical accounts of violence, animal sacrifice, and cruelty be interpreted in the light of this evidence? Treating humans as if they were animals is a way of degrading them and denying their humanity in biblical texts. Humans have the capacity to identify with their species and use misappropriated language towards other, often domesticated, species in a way that is deliberately cruel. The chapter will argue that the capacity for warfare and cruelty in humans does not simply build on aggressive behaviour found in other animal societies or towards other animals, but involves instead a deliberative and cooperative capacity that is highly distinctive for our lineage. Such insights need to be qualified in the light of capacities for reconciliation and, with the onset of warfare, strategic peacefare.

Anger and Injustice

Individual acts of violence are always situated in the context of a community of relationships with others. Anger, as a passion, can be used for good or ill and this chapter will explore ways in which anger can be expressed. This chapter will address two broad questions on biosocial capacities for anger and two theological questions. In what sense is the human capacity for anger shaped through biological or cultural influences? What specific contexts reduce the likelihood of anger and what are the evolutionary advantages? In what sense might anger become sinful in theological terms? How might God’s anger be perceived in Augustine and contemporary theology? This chapter will begin by exploring evolutionary aspects of aggression and how these are related to social psychological categories. In philosophical terms, Aristotle’s definition of anger and the specific criteria for its presence are important, but so is the difference between anger and hatred. Thomas Aquinas defines anger as one of the moral passions and works out in what circumstances it become sinful. Thomistic discussion is still relevant to contemporary analysis even though Aquinas did not have access to the evolutionary and psychological data that are available in a contemporary context.

Paul Ricoeur on Evil

Paul Ricoeur represents an important source in Western culture who refuses to adopt a sharp separation between humanity and the rest of nature, while recognizing the importance of human distinctiveness. This chapter will engage Ricoeur’s works, beginning with Freedom and Nature, where he emphasizes the preconditions for human sin and the distinctions between scientific explanations and philosophical understanding. Another work, Fallible Man, distinguishes between the finite and infinite and describes the preconditions for human sin. Here, Ricoeur takes steps to fill in the gap between what he terms the pathétique of misery and the transcendental. He resists the idea that the source of evil arises directly from animal passions, but presents a more complex argument related to the force of what he terms ‘the fault’. In The Symbolism of Evil, Ricoeur further describes his recognition that the Fall of humanity admits a voluntary quality to specifically human sin; therefore, guilt is distinct from suffering. Ricoeur’s interpretation of the significance and problematic nature of Augustine’s account of the Fall is instructive in this respect. How far is the explicit human propensity for sin also dependent on prior language and symbolic thought? Ricoeur’s thought also frames the discussion that follows as a dialectical relationship between the natural propensity for evil and its voluntary, symbolic/semiotic character.

Greed, Envy, and Gluttony

The vices of greed, envy, and gluttony are named as three of the ‘deadly sins’ in the Christian tradition. All are more specific instances of what ‘free riding’ looks like by individuals in a community. Evolutionary psychology introduced the concept of ‘free riding’ as a problem that arises in a cooperative community. This chapter will focus most attention on greed or avarice understood as taking more than is needed. The chapter will explore key theological and biblical issues related to greed and discuss how the perception of the vice has changed through time. Moreover, the chapter will briefly explore envy, the desire for the goods of another, before moving to gluttony, which is self-indulgence related to food. In the classic tradition, gluttony included alcoholic drink and negatively impacted the body, but it also has wider implications for the community. The chapter will end by discussing how evolutionary, psychological, and medical theories for the origins of these vices compare with theological interpretations.

The Search for Shadow Sophia

This chapter summarizes the themes of the book as a whole by returning to a primary issue raised at the start of the volume, namely, how to understand the roots of human evil. It follows a broadly Thomistic understanding of evil as lacking in agency, mirrored in Sergii Bulgakov’s suggestive terminology of shadow sophia. The risks apparent in Neoplatonism within Bulgakov are countered through a focus on practical wisdom and its counterfeit in distorted forms, alongside the biblical imagery of folly. The different vices discussed throughout the work are revisited again in their relationship to each other in order to develop a broader sense of the subtlety and energy of evil as it arises in individuals and communities. Some tentative conclusions are reached about what Ricoeur terms ‘the fault’, which cannot be reduced to purely scientific explanations, as well as his provocation to lament. At the same time, scientific engagement enlarges the understanding of virtues and the accompanying vices. The afterword opens up the discussion to the volume which will follow on the work of grace in the moral life.

Despair, Anxiety, and Sloth

Despair is a stronger form of sadness than envy because it reflects deep inner turmoil. While it is difficult to measure mental states of animals, many behavioural studies imply that at least some social animals can become despondent: but can they reach a state of despair? Søren Kierkegaard considered despair and anxiety integral to the human condition; for him, anxiety was the prelude to original sin and the state of sin was a state of despair. Ignatius of Loyola also recognized periods of desolation as well as consolation in the spiritual life, which suggests that desolation might have a place in the human journey to God. This chapter will explore how one might distinguish licit forms of desolation, which facilitate the journey toward God, from illicit forms, which lead to fear and sin. The vice of acedia has a fascinating history. In monastic communities, it was viewed as an attack of the noonday demon and in more secularized contexts it was seen as laziness. This chapter argues that struggles to interpret the presence of acedia through history are illuminating in working out the different sources of the vice of acedia and its explicit location in the human mind. Of all the cardinal vices, acedia is the one that is arguably the most explicit with respect to its damaging impact on the religious life and its distinctive appearance in the human condition.

Original Sin

This chapter begins with brief comments on broader issues of natural evil, including the darker side of ecological relationships that can lead to death rather than mutualism within a multispecies commons. An analysis of Augustine of Hippo’s doctrine of original sin follows, which shows how his doctrine became established in the church and how it remains problematic, especially in light of evolutionary alternatives. His use of Romans 5.12 is particularly important as it forms the theological basis for his understanding of original sin. The chapter will explore the contemporary rejection of Augustine’s doctrine for theological and evolutionary reasons and how far and to what extent the origin of sin might have a historical dimension in the light of theological claims for its importance. Literal interpretations of the Fall are resisted and the importance of acknowledging the course of evil in deep time is affirmed. This chapter sets the stage for the next chapter, which offers a broader philosophical analysis of the origin of evil through engagement with the thought of Paul Ricoeur.

Afterword: Redeeming Sin

This brief commentary articulates a link between the second and third volumes in this series and points to a discussion of the work of redemption, grace, the Holy Spirit, and participation in the Trinity. Such a discussion forms the theological backdrop to understanding the life of graced virtue when perceived through the experience of faith. Sergii Bulgakov’s works present an aesthetic account of wisdom and participation in God that still carries some risk of pulling away from a grounded, rooted, and fully earthed perspective on human life. Disincarnate cultural trends towards transhumanism draw on science, but amount to impoverished secular accounts of redemption. All such eschatologies need to be reminded of the material, bodily, and grounded nature of human life in our creaturely contexts, so that even graced virtue which pulls away from immersion in a multispecies framework fails as fully redemptive virtue.

Deception, Lying, and Lust

Primatologists have identified the apparent ability to deceive others in more dominant positions in order to gain sexual or other privileges. Evidence for the deliberative quality of deception in primates is much harder to assess. This chapter explores the biological capacity to deceive and shows how common it is among social animals even though relationships involving honest signalling are usually dominant. The chapter investigates the potential evolutionary roles for deception and how it plays out in the human sphere at different societal levels. Lying, however, which relies on language, brings in aspects to deception which are unique to our species. The human capacity for complex symbolic thought in which language emerges also influences the biocultural evolution of language and associated capacity for lying. Theological ethical debates about whether Thomas Aquinas ever permitted lying in situations where greater harm would ensue are worth considering in the light of the biological advantages of deception. Lust (illicit sexual desire) is another of the seven deadly sins and has been given perhaps greater pride of place in the Christian tradition because of a common interpretation of Augustine linking sex with original sin.

Taking Soundings

This chapter introduces themes that are important throughout this work. Augustine’s doctrine of original sin continues to hold sway for many theologians and the chapter briefly discusses recent works that have taken his thinking seriously in the light of evolution. The chapter also begins to map the relationships between sin, evil, natural evil, and moral evil. This blurring between natural and moral evil represents the most recent example of why an adequate understanding of sin that takes account of humanity’s embedded relationship with the natural world is so important. The chapter begins with a very brief discussion of shame, conscience, and evolutionary explanations of religion in early human societies. Following this is a brief review of Western theological explanations for the persistence of evil through a review of current literature on original sin. The chapter then argues, following traditional sources, that sin is worth exploring in order to understand virtue; in other words, an exploration of vices helps to elucidate the meaning of virtues. The chapter then comments on the common dichotomy between natural and moral evil and argues for a much greater blurring of that boundary in thinking through the biocultural origins of sin and guilt. J.M. Coetze’s novel Disgrace captures the complex and ambiguous interlacing of human sin and animality. The rest of the present volume intends to show more clearly what that blurring signifies as well as the distinctive nature of human sin and its symbolic character, which has semiotic properties amounting to a grossly distorted form of wisdom, shadow sophia.