Summaries / Resúmenes - Studia Moralia

EVIL: QUESTIONING AND CHALLENGING THEOLOGY AGAIN AND AGAIN 107the influences he has received from the environment in whichhe lives. In this way, reputable representatives of the sciencesteach that, in the end, man does not act on the basis of authenticfreedom, but on the basis of mechanisms and structures thatsteer him either from within or without. 33 This presents a temptationalmost to take advantage of this situation, to blame one’sown evil actions or omissions on various mechanisms andstructures, to find excuses for every sort of evil and to banalizeit in such a way. 34Mistaken behaviors are thus attributed to blind destiny, to aproblem of genetic make-up or to a bad upbringing. The evilwhich results therefore appears neutral or the effect of some illnessor of societal structures. From this comes the appearanceof inevitability and banality. So many people, in our postmodernera, hide behind such mechanisms of excuse and trivialization.Sometimes they even cultivate a stance of indifference: givingup on their ideals they no longer risk disappointment! 35Such a stance becomes particularly painful for the true victimsof trivialized evil. There is no longer any adequateresponse to their desperate cry: why so much suffering, why somuch injustice? The evil which they must endure becomes pureabsurdity for them. 3633Such positions have been criticized by Pope John Paul II in VeritatisSplendor (Vatican City: Editrice Vaticana, 1993), par. 33.34Attempts at banalizing or trivializing evil – hiding it behind “unavoidable”structures – take many forms. A recent essay brings forward a fewexamples of the banality in at least some contemporary claims of “victimization.”The article says that the number of lawsuits climbed in the UnitedStates between 1960 and 1990 from barely 10,000 to over 250,000. Themajority of these concerned relatively small “crimes,” but what is significantis that they are characterized by the expression, “victimism.” Twoexamples: A computer systems employee was fired because he continuallyshowed up late to work. He defended himself in court with the argumentthat he suffered from a “lateness syndrome.” Another employee, fired forembezzling money from the company to gamble in Las Vegas, defendedhimself declaring that he was addicted to gambling and therefore was notguilty. See the editorial note in Christ in der Gegenwart 45/20 (1993), 167.35Gerd Neuhaus, “Theodizee und Glaubensgeschichte,“ in HaraldWagner (ed.), Mit Gott streiten (Freiburg:Herder, 1998) (QD 169), 20.36Jürgen Werbick, Den Glauben verantworten (Freiburg:Herder, 2000),524.