Summaries / Resúmenes - Studia Moralia

118 BRUNO HIDBERthe knowledge of God by progress in the knowledge of evil.” 53Just how progress in the knowledge of God includes aprogress in the knowledge of evil and vice versa cannot be furtherdeveloped in its contents here. Some brief references to themost important dimensions of a theology that would do thismay conclude these reflections both as a kind of summary anda sketch of what must still be done.In light of God’s action, the relationship between moral eviland structures of evil becomes one of tension which stimulatesfurther thinking. We have seen that evil exercises today itsdestroying power in a specific way in mechanisms and structures,which are created by human beings, but then vest themselveswith a kind of anonymous autonomy. Whoever becomesvictim of these mechanisms and structures is deprived of a personalface although such a person suffers this evil in a very personalway. The great majority of victims of evil today are anonymous,just as are the mechanisms and structures that createand support such evil. One of the most urgent challenges todayis therefore to introduce the face of the human being into theanonymity without face of these mechanisms and structures.That requires new and deepened theological reflection on thefact that the source, the raison d’être and all the possibilities ofself-realization of the human being come in his partnershipwith God and with other personal beings. The more the humanbeing is clearly conceived in his personal partnership with Godand with his fellows, the more it becomes clear that evil, despiteits anonymous mask of mechanisms and structures, is also personalsin and personal guilt.In this way, theological discourse on evil breaks the chainof anonymous mechanisms and alibis, which so many scientificand pseudo-scientific attempts at explanation have attached tohumanity. Theology is called upon in this context to undertakeseriously an open and critical dialogue with the human sciencesand their research. 54 The results of human scienceresearch show without doubt that human freedom is consider-53Charles Journet, The Meaning of Evil, 21.54A good summary of parameters for such a dialogue is give byJohannes Brantl in his Verbindende Moral. Theologische Ethik und kulturenvergleichendeHumanethologie (Freiburg; Wien:Herder, 2001), 17-56.