GOOD, VIRTUE, SIN, AND EVIL IN PHILOCALIC PATRISTIC THINKING
GOOD, VIRTUE, SIN, AND EVIL IN PHILOCALIC PATRISTIC THINKING

Summary/Abstract: The good exists, it is the being. Evil has no being, it does not exist by itself. Evil is a lack of good, not an ontological reality. Saint Basil the Great considers God to be the Absolute Good. The cause of evil is identified by Basil the Great not in human nature, nor in creation, nor in God, but in the free will of each individual. Saint John Chrysostom sees the presence of evil in the world through the presence of suffering. He deduces that all evil is the fruit of sin, which consists in disobedience to God. Sin is foreign to the authentic existence of man. Sin is the source of all evil. Life itself is a form of struggle against evil. Only in relation to God can we be saved. In this study I will present some of the ideas of ascetic parents of Church regarding the problem of good and evil.

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