The concept of evil and forgiveness has created a controversy among modern philosophers and Christian believers. Christians believe that evil arises from the original sin committed by human beings and that one can be forgiven if he asks for forgiveness from God (wiley, 2014). Philosophers argue that forgiving evildoers encourage more evils in the world. The holocaust represents many heinous acts against humanity that were perpetrated by the Nazi regime.
Hannah Arendt wrote different books intending to bring out the complexity entangles in the concept of evil and forgiveness. In her book, Eichmann in Jerusalem, Arendt contested that evil was not radical by defending the actions holocaust perpetrators (wiley, 2014). According to her, the evil committed by Eichmann and other Nazi soldiers did not have roots, as many of them were following orders from superiors. In this case, evil is viewed as not premediated, deep-thought, or possess a demonic dimension (wiley, 2014).
A totalitarian political regime is what attributed to the evil committed by the united states and Nazis on the Jewish refugees. The evil committed against humanity in modern society have changed from personal motives to political motives. The case of Jewish refugees rejected in the U.S exhibit how governmental policies contribute to evils in the world (Norwood, 2017).
Arendt argues that forgiveness is rendered to those individuals who conform to the guilt of being involved in evil deeds. A different perception of evil and forgiveness is seen when Arendt forgave her ex-lover Heidegger who was a mass murderer of the Jewish community (wiley, 2014). When evils actions such as civil wars, invasion of Asian countries by the west, actions taken against terror groups have legitimized the concept of evil becomes more complicated. The evil witnessed in the world today can be viewed as arising from political interventions that aim at saving humanity at the expense of eliminating others.
References
- Norwood, C. (2017, january 27). The Atlantic. Retrieved from A Twitter Tribute to Holocaust Victims: https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/01/jewish-refugees-in-the-us/514742/
- The Complexity of Evil. Wiley Periodicals and Dialog, Inc., pp. 167-171.
