Once there was a Devil—so the story goes—and as early Christians grappled with all that was wrong in the world, the Devil served as their primary explanation for evil, sin, and suffering. As the well-known adage puts it, “The Devil made me do it.”
Following this logic, the Devil is central to a Christian account of evil, sin, and suffering in a way that may deny human responsibility and culpability. Shouldn’t human beings take responsibility for the harms we commit? Is that not what we confess when we name our sins before God? Indeed, this is a central tenet of Christian teaching. Confession is an integral feature of the Lord’s Prayer, after all. If, then, the Devil is little more than an unsuccessful explanation for the fall of humankind, perhaps we can dispense with this figure, and aim instead for a more “sophisticated” account of the Christian faith, which does not include stories of fallen angels?
The problem with such a proposal is that it stems from a grave misunderstanding of the breadth and complexity of early Christian thought. The Devil played a role in early Christian accounts of salvation history, but he was not understood as singularly responsible for the fall of humankind or for human sin thereafter.
Let’s consider Basil of Caesarea (c. AD 330–79). While he is known best for his contributions to Trinitarian doctrine and the development of fourth-century monasticism, Basil’s sermons and letters evince deep pastoral concern for the communities he served. One such sermon is That God Is Not the Cause of Evil.[1] Of all Basil’s sermons that address problems of sin and evil, this one deals most directly with what evil is and how it came to exist in this world. While the exact dating is difficult to discern, scholars agree that Basil most likely composed this sermon to respond to theological and practical issues emerging from the famine across Cappadocia in 368. Some of those who had stored up supplies did not share their food with the hungry. Against this backdrop, Basil taught on evil, sin, and suffering.
The theologian begins by reflecting on how the Psalms respond to sin and suffering in different ways. Matters such as this demand complex responses. Sometimes David shows patient endurance and at other times he praises God for responding swiftly to his complaint. According to the Psalms, when facing sin, a person should ask for God’s mercy. Moreover, we sinners ought to remind God of our situation, especially when it seems to us that God may have forgotten us.
The gravest mistake Christians can make, according to Basil, is to believe that bad things happen because there is no God. Indeed, it is as serious to claim that there is no God as it is to claim that God is the cause of evils. The first sin denies God and the second denies God’s goodness.
For Basil, there is a difference between “what our senses perceive as evil” and “what is evil in its own nature.” The former are evils that, when examined closely, are not in fact evils—they merely appear so. The latter is a tricky phrase and could be taken in different ways. Nature (physis) can mean “origin” and “creation,” or it can mean “kind” and “sort.” Since Basil affirms that evil is without origin and not created, it would be incongruous for him to have in mind evil as it exists at creation. “Evil by nature,” therefore, is most likely a kind of evil that has been produced by humankind such as injustice, cowardice, envy, murder, and laziness. It is worth noting that Basil does not even mention the Devil through the first section of his sermon. Instead, he affirms that the responsibility for “evil by nature” lies with human beings.
Having explained that there is more than one kind of evil, Basil then asks, “From what source, then, does [evil] exist, one asks, if it is neither without origin nor created?” His first response is to state that evil was not co-eternal with the good. Drawing on the first three chapters of Genesis, Basil reflects on creation and Adam’s expulsion from paradise. Enjoying the delights of paradise, Adam is given authority akin to that of the angels.
Even greater than this, he is able to hear the divine voice. During this section that explores evil’s origins, we might expect Basil to introduce the Devil, whom early Christians identified with the serpent in the Garden of Eden. Instead, Basil places the responsibility for sin’s entry into the world on Adam.
This is how he explains Adam’s expulsion from paradise: Becoming “insolent through satiety, he preferred what appeared delightful to fleshly eyes to the spiritual beauty and considered the filling of the stomach more valuable than the spiritual enjoyments.”[2] Evil enters the world, then, not through the Devil but through Adam’s thoughtlessness. The Devil did not make Adam “do it.”
What, then, is the role of the Devil in That God Is Not the Cause of Evil? Before answering this question, it is worth noting that Basil does not turn to the Devil until the final section, in which Basil treats the Devil as a third kind of evil. The theologian piles question upon question about the Devil to launch his inquiry: “Who therefore was the devil? And, what was his rank? And, what was his honor? And why in short has he been named Satan?”[3] After these questions, Basil instructs at length on the Devil’s names. Reflecting on Devil, Satan, Enemy, Opponent, Ruler of the air, Ruler of the world, and Serpent, Basil moves deftly through some of the biblical names for the Devil. As the World-Ruler, this fallen angel poses some problems for the people of God.
When Basil recalls the Devil’s identity as the serpent in the Garden of Eden, his audience is reminded that the Devil acts, primarily, through deception and temptation. Thus, they need to be on their guard against his wiles. Christ, through his victory over the Devil, has given them authority over the Evil One. If the people of God succumb to the Devil’s deceptions and temptations, however, fixing their eyes on things other than the good, then Satan is quick to assume the role of Accuser. In short, the bishop teaches the church to know her enemy by his name(s).
By the conclusion of the sermon, one is left with the sense that the Devil is a live problem for the church. If he were not, why would Basil dedicate a third of this sermon to identifying the Devil’s notable features and exhorting the people of God to resist his wiles? Note, however, that Basil does not use the Devil as an explanation for the presence of evil in the world. Instead, according to the bishop, the Devil poses a moral, personal, and practical problem by tempting and deceiving humankind. As such, Basil must deal with him and teach the church to do likewise. At times, the Devil creates a philosophical and theological problem too, to which Basil responds by tackling questions of this angel’s fall, his presence on the earth, and his ultimate end.
The bishop does not resolve every question satisfactorily, but one thing is clear: as far as Basil is concerned, when it comes to matters of evil and sin, the Devil “does not make us do it.”
[1] Basil’s sermon That God Is Not the Cause of Evil (Malo.) is not yet available in a critically edited edition but can be found in Greek in Patrologia Greca (PG 31, 329–354). An English translation can be found in Nonna Verna Harrison’s St. Basil The Great: On the Human Condition; Translation and Introduction. PPS 30. Crestwood, New York: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2005, 65–80. The translations in this essay are mine.
[2] Malo. 7 (PG 31, 345A–C).
[3] Malo. 9 (PG 31, 349D).
The Rev. Gabrielle Thomas, PhD is a Guest Writer. She is Assistant Professor of Early Christianity and Anglican Studies at Candler School of Theology, Emory University. Previous appointments include Durham University and Yale University. Thomas' published works include The Image of God in the Theology of Gregory of Nazianzus (Cambridge UP, 2019), Women and Ordination in the Orthodox Church (Cascade Books, 2020), For the Good of the Church: Unity, Theology, and Women (SCM Press, 2021). Her The Problem of the Devil in Cappadocian Thought (Cambridge UP) is forthcoming.
