[HarleyD]

Have you ever read the Divine Names by +Dionysius the Areopagite?

Up until this point I have not. However, I have spent part of today reading this work (about 3/4 of it actually) per your recommendation. I find the work to be very vague and Platonic. He dwells on the good, love, beauty of God but fails to balance this with God's other attributes of justice, jealousy, and wrath.

According to this work, there is no evil-not even among demons (please see Section XXIII) where he states:

"But, neither are the demons evil by nature; for, if they are evil by nature, neither are they from the Good, nor amongst things existing; nor, in fact, did they change from good, being by nature, and always, evil."

Dionysius tries to make the point, if I read him correctly, that God is good and therefore all things coming from God contains goodness. This is contrary to what I find in scripture:

"...for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good..." Matt 5:45

"If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children..." Matt 7:11

"...and the evil man brings out of his evil treasure what is evil." Matt 12:34

"...for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the Light.” Jn 3:19

“I do not ask You to take them out of the wold, but to keep them from the evil one.” Jn 17:15 (Notice the direct contradiction to Dionysius' assertion that the demons are not evil to our Lord Jesus' statement.)

With all due respects for +Dionysius, I would have to strongly disagree with his statement:

But does some one say that souls are evil? If it be that they meet with evil things providentially, and with a view to their preservation, this is not an evil, but a good, and from the Good, Who makes even the evil good. But, if we say that souls become evil, in what respect do they become evil, except in the failure of their good habits and energies; and, by reason of their own lack of strength, missing their aim and tripping?

Dionysius fails to recognized that man corrupted himself and is now considered, by God, to be evil. To me Dionysius argument in the Divine Names is a derivation of Plato’s “Form of the Good” argument. Both were wrong.

If any would like to read this material it can be found here -> Dionysius and Form of the Good

[kosta50]

He dwells on the good, love, beauty of God but fails to balance this with God's other attributes of justice, jealousy, and wrath

But God's love is seen as wrath and jealousy by people who hate Him. A minor detail OT authors failed to recognize at the time, just as Christ reminds us that "eye for an eye" (also in the Scripture, is not a correct response, nor something we should follow. How can Scripture be wrong? Christ says "eye for an eye" is not what we should follow.

The Old Testament says you should kill your enemy. Christ says you should love your enemies and those who persecute you. How can that be? The OT teaches nothing like that!

According to this work, there is no evil-not even among demons

God made all things good, according to Scripture. Demons were angels before they rebelled. Man was good until he rebelled. In both cases the free will rejected God and created evil.

Dionysius fails to recognized that man corrupted himself and is now considered, by God, to be evil

But, according to your theology, God was "guiding" him! Adam was good and alive when he was created and all his steps must have been guided by God, as He guides "the elect" today. But that implies that God guided Adam right into sin!

[stripes1776]

Dionysius fails to recognized that man corrupted himself and is now considered, by God, to be evil.

You make Dionysius' point for him. If man corrupts himself, that corruption does not come from God. So you are confirming what Dionysius says: evil does not come from God. What we disagree about is Total Depravity. Christianity has never subscribed to this doctrine--it is an invention of Calvin.

Dionysius asserts that nothing in creation is evil by nature because all is created by God who is goodness and has no evil in him. When talking about the evil of daimones he says

Their evil, then, is a turning aside and a departure from and privation of their true estate, a weakness, failure and falling away from that power which would preserve them in their perfection...Hence the race of daimones is not evil in sofar as it is according to nature, but in so far as it is not. And the whole good given to them has not been changed, but they themselves have fallen away from the wholeness of good...But they are called evil through a declination and deprivation and lapse from that good which is proper to them, and they are evil in seeking that which is not.

So evil seeks that which is not--in other words, the state of non-being which is death.

and [man] is now considered, by God, to be evil.

Well, this is what we disagree about. God doesn't consider man to be evil, but under the influence of evil. That is a big difference.