The Problem of Evil with James P. Driscoll

James P. Driscoll, PhD, is one of the foremost critics of Renaissance literature from a Jungian perspective. He is author of Identity in Shakespearean Drama and The Unfolding God of Jung and Milton.

Here he explains that the “problem of evil” evolved within the context of Christian theology. How is it possible for evil to exist in a world in which god is perfectly just, good, omniscient, and omnipotent? Milton’s great epic poem, Paradise Lost, is among the foremost works of English literature that endeavor to justify the Christian theological position. Driscoll notes, however, that literary critics and philosophers have not found the Christian theological position to be satisfactory. In particular, Carl Gustav Jung, the great Swiss psychiatrist, has been critical of the conventional Christian image of the deity. Great tragic literature suggests, on the other hand, that the human encounter with evil can catalyze a greater consciousness.

New Thinking Allowed host, Jeffrey Mishlove, PhD, is author of The Roots of Consciousness, Psi Development Systems, and The PK Man. Between 1986 and 2002 he hosted and co-produced the original Thinking Allowed public television series. He is the recipient of the only doctoral diploma in “parapsychology” ever awarded by an accredited university (University of California, Berkeley, 1980). He is also past-president of the non-profit Intuition Network, an organization dedicated to creating a world in which all people are encouraged to cultivate and apply their inner, intuitive abilities.

(Recorded on May 30, 2016)