Summaries / Resúmenes - Studia Moralia

94 BRUNO HIDBERThe purpose of this essay is to attempt to express the radicalchallenge that evil presents to theology in the contemporaryworld. The essay does not so much develop a theology of evil,as it does articulate the challenges such a theology would needto face. The essay also addresses theology’s absolute need –from its own premises – to address the radical challenge of evil.The essay is comprised of five parts and a brief conclusion.The first part summarizes three traditional distinctions theologyhas made in regard to evil and suggests that they remain valid,but are limited and need new approaches and deeper insights. Asecond step explores how Auschwitz has become a name indicatinga new and “qualitative leap” toward the negative in ourunderstanding of evil. A third step shows how the new realities ofthe latter twentieth century – in particular, globalization andpostmodernism – pose further challenges to a theology of evil. Inthe fourth part, the essay points out that much of our twentiethcentury experience has led to indifference and banalization inthe face of evil. A fifth step shows that, confronted by the scandalof evil in our time, theology is confronted with both its limitationsand its raison d’être. While theology must certainly speakcarefully in the face of evil, it must speak: the question of evil andthe question of God are so inter-related that only a deep theologicaldiscourse can discover the immeasurable depths of evil and,at the same time, the real possibilities of overcoming it.1. Theology’s traditional approaches to evil and newquestionsOn every side, the human person encounters limits and dangersbeyond his control which he experiences as evil. This evilimposes itself in a complex variety of ways. It will be worthwhiletaking a brief look at how theology has approached this varietyof ways in its tradition. This will permit us to become aware bothof the richness and of the limits of these traditional distinctionsand lead us to new questions and challenges. A rather commondistinction of evil in the theological tradition is that betweenphysical, metaphysical and moral evil. 11Regis Jolivet, “Evil”, in New Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. 5 (WashingtonD.C.: The Catholic University of America, 1967), 666-667.