Privation
If evil is a privation of the good, as held by many in the history of Christian theology, that does not imply it is passive. An all too active force, evil might be akin to an insatiable blackhole, sweeping every last ray of light into its merciless and annihilating current, dragging everything down into a dark, cold abyss. While grace has broken into this age, and the final triumph and new creation of God has been revealed by, and hidden in, the crucified and risen Messiah, nonetheless, we yet live and die under Sin and Death. We inhabit a place at once charged with the grandeur of God and pervaded by anti-God powers, requiring watchfulness and wonder.
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Joshua Heavin
Rev. Dr. Joshua Heavin (PhD, Aberdeen) serves as Curate for Pastoral Care at Christ Church Cathedral in Plano, Texas; he is the book reviews editor for Pro Ecclesia, the journal of the Center for Catholic and Evangelical Theology; and he is an adjunct professor in the School of Christian Thought at Houston Christian University and West Texas A&M University.
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