Origins of Evil

He posed to question to me: "Where do you think it comes from?  Evil, where does it come from?"  My boyfriend wasn't referring to the catastrophes and illnesses that behalf all of us (more or less), but to what many have called "moral evil."  He was referring to the drive that has lead humans to create structures that favor few while depriving many, to build institutions that perpetuate the horrors of violence, to insatiably consume the earth's abundant resources and create unsustainable economies.  How did we become enslaved to a momentum that only seems to multiply the cruelties in the world?  What's the origin that gives rise to enslaving black bodies and dispossessing American Indians?  Or to violence against women or to totalitarian regimes?  Or to exploitation and economic inequality?  What's the source of [moral] evil?

There's no answer to this question.  No psychology, history, or philosophy has or can adequately answer this question.  And, despite our interpretations, the Bible doesn't pretend to give answer to this question either.  By definition, evil is meaningless and without rationality.  This is the case even in instances when evil can be executed by highly rational and precise movements--for example in the Holocaust, war, or slavery.  Many of these executions of evil are very strategic and justify themselves by use of science, political theory, or some other discipline.  But the reason for the evil--why such conditions are brought about--remains beyond reason.  It's my belief, however, that the non-rationality of evil can only be rivaled by the non-rationality of grace and the madness of faith that it commands.  The meaninglessness of cruelty that lies beyond all logic can only be overcome by a grace that exceeds all calculation or horizons.  And those who respond to that grace in faith, respond with a generosity that can only appear as madness.