Chapter 9 – Beyond
Good and Evil
1. Hall introduces us to
renowned atheist Friedrich Nietzsche, whose infamous writing serves as a
powerful backdrop against the mystery of good and evil. Hall’s thesis here is quite “anti-Nietzschean,”
which he presents in three parts:
First, “Over against the contemporary drift towards ethical
relativism, good and evil are permanently legitimate distinctions, the steady
contemplation of which is necessary to the survival of civilization.”
Where is this ethical relativism most prevalent today? (Let’s look far and wide as we address this
question.) Why does our survival depend
on the steady contemplation of good and evil? Why does Nietzsche’s “value-prioritizing” fail to deliver any kind of
moral stability?
2. Second, “Contrary to every
type of moral absolutism, good and evil are inextricably interwoven in the
fabric of our actual living.” Hall
expounds: “For serious Christians, moralistic solutions to profound ethical
questions are especially frustrating because (usually in the name of
true-believing Christianity!) they promulgate simplistic moral teachings that
misrepresent and distort the more penetrating moral insights of biblical
faith.”
Hall urges us to distinguish biblical faith from the dangerous biblicism
of old morality. Biblical faith
understands that…“our lives in the actual living of them are inevitable strange
admixtures of good and evil.”
Hall asks, “Can anyone be called good, really?” And I ask, “If not…why?” (Paul and Jesus have great answers for this!)
3. Third, “Human authenticity
depends upon a grace that is indeed…beyond good and evil.” Citing his much-earlier reading of a poem by John
Greenleaf Whittier, Hall concludes, “In the last analysis, it is not ours
to untangle the mysterious intermingling of good and evil that constitutes a
life; that the authenticity for which we long and toward which our goodness is
indeed a striving, can be realized by us only as a gift – only as a grace that
is indeed…beyond good and evil.”
And finally, this gem by Hall:
“What divine grace offers…is a new freedom: the freedom to end
preoccupation with one’s own moral condition; the freedom to become ultimately
concerned, rather, with the good of the other.”
What role does God’s grace play in your understanding of and
coping with good and evil? Consider
sharing a real-life experience of this freedom…moving from self-concern
to other-concern, with the help of God.
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