To say that evil does not exist is not to say that there is no evil in the world, but to say that it has no ‘existence’ other than what comes into being through our actions. This is an important piece of Christian theology that is often neglected, but sits right at the beginning of S. Diadochos’s Gnostic Chapters. Chapters 2 and 3 explore the human capacity for good and evil and Diadochos is clear that these are not equal and opposite realities. He insists that human beings are not naturally evil but can create evil through the desire of the heart. But his first principle is that human beings can become good through ‘careful attention to their way of life’, and can be united to God, who is good by nature. Because goodness exists naturally, it is more powerful than inclinations towards evil, which is not natural because it is not created by God. In other words, evil is an absence of good, or a distraction from what is good.

Now, all of this might seem like semantics, because we all know – very painfully – that evil does exist in our world. However, I think it completely changes our outlook on other people if we get away from the idea that they are fundamentally evil. Evil is a distortion of our truest nature, not part of it. And in practical terms, at least on an interpersonal level, it makes sense to me that we overcome disorder in our relationships and communities not by focussing primarily on wrongful actions, but by nurturing goodness. I don’t pretend to have insights on how this might scale up to the level of, say, criminal justice, except to say that this kind of thinking would give greater weight to rehabilitation than might be popular among politicians [see Gwen Adshead’s Reith Lectures], but I find this approach helpful on a more immediate level. And that immediate level for Diadochos, as for Desert Mothers and Fathers, was, very clearly, one’s own actions, one’s own behaviour:

We transform ourselves into what we are not when our soul, by devoting its attention to true delight, unites itself to God, so far as its energized power desires this.

Our transformation begins in delighting in God!