Where does [evil] come from, then? The only way to get a bad thing is to take a good thing and spoil it. For example, darkness isn’t made up from nothing; you get it by blocking the light. Disease isn’t made up from nothing; you get it by ruining health. Notice that this doesn’t work the other way around – you can’t get light by blocking darkness or health by ruining disease. So God created only good things, but some of them have been spoiled.
— J. Budziszewski (b. 1952), Philosoph, Apologet und Universitätsprofessor
Topics: Suffering & the Question of God, Doubt & Hard Questions
Occasions: For Reflection
J. Budziszewski
J. Budziszewski (* 1952) ist ein US-amerikanischer Philosoph und Politikwissenschaftler, der seit 1981 als Professor an der University of Texas at Austin lehrt. Der römisch-katholische Denker ist vor allem für seine Erneuerung der thomistischen Naturrechtslehre bekannt und vertritt die These, dass grundlegende moralische Wahrheiten unauslöschlich im menschlichen Gewissen verankert sind. Für Bibelleser bietet er philosophische Begründungen für eine objektive biblische Ethik, wenngleich seine traditionellen gesellschaftspolitischen Positionen im säkularen Diskurs umstritten sind.
All quotes by J. Budziszewski (15)
In our own woundedness, we can become sources of life for others.
Henri Nouwen
Ultimately mourning means facing what wounds us in the presence of One who can heal.
Henri Nouwen
C.S. Lewis
When we are crushed like grapes, we cannot think of the wine we will become.
Henri Nouwen
He has chosen not to heal me, but to hold me. The more intense the pain, the closer His embrace.
Joni Eareckson Tada
Etty Hillesum
God writes straight even on crooked lines.
Paul Claudel
God lets us walk no path that he himself has not walked, and on which he does not go ahead of us.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer