By Max on Jan 7, 2009 in The Problem of Pain | Comments Off
A cruel man oppresses his neighbour, and so does simple evil. But in doing such evil, he is used by God, without his own knowledge or consent, to produce the complex good–so that the first man serves God as a son, and the second as a tool. For you will certainly carry out God’s purpose, [...]
By Max on Jan 7, 2009 in The Problem of Pain | Comments Off
I think the most significant way of stating the real freedom of man is to say that if there are other rational species than man, existing in some other part of the actual universe, then it is not necessary to suppose that they also have fallen.
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The Problem of Pain (New York: Macmillian Publishing Co., Inc., [...]
By Max on Jan 7, 2009 in The Problem of Pain | Comments Off
The idea of that which God “could have” done involves a too anthropomorphic conception of God’s freedom. Whatever human freedom means, Divine freedom cannot mean indeterminacy between alternatives and choice of one of them. Perfect goodness can never debate about the end to be attained, and perfect wisdom cannot debate about the means most suited [...]
By Max on Aug 7, 2008 in The Great Divorce | Comments Off
“Ye can know nothing of the end of all things, or nothing expressible in those terms. It may be, as the Lord said to the Lady Julian, that all will be well, and all will be well, and all manner of things will be well. But it’s ill talking of such questions.”
“Because they are too [...]