Good and evil in a theological perspective

Background: The distinction between good and evil provides an elementary orientation and evaluation category in the human language. Religions and worldviews play a decisive role in the genesis and transmission of concepts of good and evil by encoding normative concepts in narratives, symbols, laws, and rituals and shaping a certain ethos. Objective: This article theologically discusses the understanding of good and evil in the Christian religion. Method: A distinction is made between two questions: (1) the metaphysical question about the nature and origin of good and evil, and (2) the textual question about the narrative configuration of good and evil in the biblical texts and the corresponding anthropology. Results: The study shows that the metaphysical consideration leads to aporia, whereas the gain in orientation of Christian religion lies in the differentiation between person and work, in a phenomenological consideration of evil, and in the promotion of love as the power of good. Conclusion: A possible subject for an interdisciplinary conversation between theology and psychotherapy might be the role of narrative encoding of good and evil and the anthropological implications.