The Metaphysics of Good and Evil

"Oderberg's work provides theologians the clarity necessary to avoid spouting platitudes or nonsense when posed the question: if evil is, in itself, nothing but a lack of being, how can evil wreak so much damage? Oderberg's response is that the theory on which evils are privations of being does not entail that evils are not real. Despite sin and evil remaining mysterious features of the world, then, the first half of the book and the concluding chapter on the reality of evil would be fruitful to anyone looking to understand or defend classical Christian reflection concerning the mysterium iniquitatis." - Fr. James Dominic Rooney, OP, Religious Studies Review