Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
The nature of being good has been given many treatments; one is that the good is based on the natural love, bonding, and affection that begins at the earliest stages of personal development; another is that goodness is a product of knowing truth. Differing views also exist as to why evil might arise.
[5] The third virtue is also commonly referred to as "charity", as this is how the influential King James Bible translated the Greek word agape. The traditional understanding of the difference between cardinal and theological virtues is that the latter are not fully accessible to humans in their natural state without assistance from God. [6]
The goodness of God means that "God is the final standard of good, and all that God is and does is worthy of approval." [12] Many theologians consider the goodness of God as an overarching attribute - Louis Berkhof, for example, sees it as including kindness, love, grace, mercy and longsuffering. [13]
Good is the cause of evil, but only owing to fault on the part of the agent. In his theodicy, to say something is evil is to say that it lacks goodness which means that it could not be part of God's creation, because God's creation lacked nothing. Aquinas noted that, although goodness makes evil possible, it does not necessitate evil.
The tree is the soul, that is, the man himself; the fruit is the man’s works. An evil man therefore cannot work good works, nor a good man evil works. Therefore if an evil man would work good things, let him first become good. But as long as he continues evil, he cannot bring forth good fruits.
Plotinus does not think that there is any "other principle in the universe independent of, and antithetical to, the Good, or the One. Evil is merely the incidental consequence of there being a universe at all." [17] The following quotation from that tractate, in which evil is described as non-being, illustrates this:
Omnibenevolence is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as "unlimited or infinite benevolence".Some philosophers, such as Epicurus [a], have argued that it is impossible, or at least improbable, for a deity to exhibit such a property alongside omniscience and omnipotence, as a result of the problem of evil.
Virtues are traits or qualities which dispose one to conduct oneself in a morally good manner. Traditionally the theological virtues have been named faith , hope , and charity ( love ). They are coupled with the four natural or cardinal virtues , and opposed to the seven deadly sins .