Our Complicated History with Evil (Discover Your Roots Season 2 Premiere)

Hitler is evil. Helping an old lady cross the street is good. Simple, right? But there’s an underlying question here: Why? What are good and evil?

In this crossover with our partner organization Passages Israel, Dru Johnson (CHT Director) and Mattanah DeWitt kick off Season 2 of Discover Your Roots, which aims to unpack weighty questions about the nature of good and evil. In this episode, Dru gives an overview of the season, walking us through a few common conceptions (and misconceptions!) about good and evil through the lens of psychology, philosophy, culture, and—ultimately—Scripture. The whole season is available here!

Discover Your Roots is produced by Passages Israel. Passages sponsors and coordinates journeys to the Holy Land to strengthen the faith of Christian students, connect them to Israel, and prepare them for a life of Christ-centered leadership.

Show notes:

• 0:00 Announcing the upcoming CHT event in NYC
• 1:23 Introducing Season 2
• 2:20 How modern culture thinks about evil
• 7:40 Definitions of evil
• 9:57 The theological history of evil
• 13:42 The Hebrew word ra
• 15:20 Why our words lose their weight
• 17:07 An overview of the Bible's view
• 21:59 God using evil for good
• 23:29 Analyzing the golden calf story
• 27:29 Turning toward good
• 29:41 The redemption of the world
• 32:23 Preview of the rest of the season

Show notes by Micah Long