In his The Poetics of Evil: Toward an Aesthetic Theodicy , Philip Tallon examines Marilyn McCord Adams’s use of “horrendous evils” as a starting point for theodicy. Tallon writes, “One key advantage of horrors is that their unrelentingly negative vision drives us to look beyond them for some larger framework wherein they can find resolution. Whereas tragedy aims to offer some solution to the problem of evil within the realm of the immanent, horror demands eschatological resolution,” and this forces us to look to Jesus for “a vision of the ultimate defeat of evil.”
He adds, “Individual horrors snap the threat with which Augustine sought to tether beauty and evil but in doing so break free and allow us to find a bloodier but more satisfying beauty: a beauty scourged, shamed, and crowned with thorns.”
Dear Reader,
Can I be direct with you?
War abroad. Socialists on the rise. AI upending human life. Endless uproar online. The modern attention economy doesn’t want readers — it wants users enslaved to the tyranny of the present.
First Things is the antidote: literary excellence, timeless truths, and a fixed point of reference in a culture that has lost its bearings.
But we can’t do it without readers like you.
Our goal: Raise $150,000 by November 1 to sustain First Things in the year ahead.
Your gift anchors readers in the permanent things.
Make your Fall Campaign gift now using the button below.
If you have any questions or would like more information, please contact Giovanni Del Piero, Director of the Editor’s Circle, at gdelpiero@firstthings.com or 212-627-1985.
The Church in the Age of Therapy
In 1966, Philip Rieff wrote in The Triumph of the Therapeutic that “Religious man was born to…
Canada’s Deadliest Blind Spot
On September 20, the Daily Mail ran a story with the provocative headline, “Our 83-year-old Christian grandmother…
The Faithful Joy of Dolly Parton and Fulton Sheen
Dolly Parton and Fulton Sheen seem to have had little in common. She favored rhinestones; he wore…