Summaries / Resúmenes - Studia Moralia

116 BRUNO HIDBERprecisely when a personal God enters the picture. Where thereis no God, there are many relatively simple ways to explain evil.It can be seen as a necessary constitutive part of a world in theprocess of evolution (Darwin); or as a necessary “negative pole”which dialectically advances a universal process of Historytoward its goal (Hegel); or as the necessary “dark side” of aworld which, in its grand harmony, is still the best of all possibleworlds (Leibniz); or as the result of an erroneous social andeconomic order (Marx); or as a given, a fact, that shows that weare controlled by a blind fate which is to be accepted with asmuch resignation as possible (Stoics)...But no sooner does a good and loving, personal God enterthe picture than the question of evil takes on a new dimension;it becomes a scandal. The existence of such a God alongside thetears of even one single, innocent and suffering child cannot bereconciled by any dialectic, historical or fatalistic response.God and evil, evil and God – there can be no hiding behindattempts at universal harmonizing responses or attempts atattributing the cause of evil exclusively to anonymous mechanismsor pre-established structures. This, at one and the sametime, is a cross and a possibility for theology: it must recognisethe obligation of giving an answer to the man or woman oftoday’s world, but insist at the same time that this answer mustbe sought beyond the possibilities available in the world, preciselybecause faith in God precludes such possibilities, findingthem much too superficial.Conclusion: A chastened theology must return to itsreflective taskIn the end, theology is entrusted with this “impossible” tasknot only because people address their questions to theologyeither accusingly and mockingly or with the desire to know, butbecause theology is bound to this reflective task by its ownpremises. In fact, as soon as we do believe and confess that Godis the origin of all reality and that He sustains it – such thatwithout Him nothing could be as it is – it becomes necessary tospeak of God when we speak of evil. Not only atheism, but alsofaith on its own account, demands a theological discourse on