In recent years, Matthew Fox has chosen to bring back the word evil. Not only has he proposed to rethink evil as a reality rather than an abstraction, but has defined it most recently as the opposite of the sacred or the holy. This is the deep conviction that animates his book Trump & the MAGA Movement as Antichrist: Recognizing the Archetype of Evil in Our Time, recently reissued with updates.
I have come to realize that the opposite of evil is not the good. Bad is the opposite of good. The opposite of evil is the sacred, the holy. A recovery of the sacred is key to working through evil. And what is the sacred? The sacred is that which is bigger than us and has brought us here. The sacred is that which makes us, rather than what we make. The sacred is beyond words and is one reason we call on art and artists, stories and storytellers, to invite us into the sacred. And to take on the forces of evil. Rabbi Jesus taught this way.*
I would like to unpack and comment on these lines. Augustine of Hippo, writing in the 4th/5th century CE, is generally recognized as the first Western thinker who treated evil as a philosophical matter. In his youth he joined the Manicheans precisely because they offered a solution to the problem of evil.
As it is the case with all cosmic dualisms, Manicheans ascribed all evil realities to an evil principle, eternally fighting against the good principle. This move effectively absolved God from all responsibility: bad things happen to people because Evil causes them.
Later, moving toward a more satisfying monism — God as the only universal monarch — Augustine knew that evil needed to be explained, and he came up with a memorable definition: evil is the absence of good — a lack, rather than a reality in itself. Such a definition has merit, but it also created much dissatisfaction in the ensuing centuries.
In Neoplatonism, the One — the origin of the universe — emanates light/good outward. The farthest regions are progressively less enlightened, until some locales are barely reached. In the Augustinian versions of neoplatonic philosophy, evil is where light does not enter sufficiently. This explains why evil is the absence of good, but it also implies that the dark regions are those of matter, understood as heavy and dull. Consequently, really spiritual people abandon as much as possible their material husks and soar toward the immaterial One.
This sophisticated version of the Platonic notion of the body as the tomb of the soul, is quite difficult to reconcile with the positive attitude toward body and matter expressed at the very beginning of the Bible (cf. Genesis 1).
The definition of evil as the absence of good also seems to misrepresent certain important characteristics of evil, namely its huge capacity for destruction, its cunningness and its deceit, even its apparent sadism. The biblical personification of the forces of evil as demons seems to grasp much better what evil is in people’s experience. The anodyne phrase absence of good does not.
I hope that this briefly sketched history helps understanding the shift that Matthew is proposing by saying that evil is the opposite of the sacred/holy, rather than of good. He recognizes that where there is evil, good is absent. But that is not the same as saying that absence of good is a sufficient definition of evil.
It is, in the first place, a question of intensity. Evil tears people apart, while the Augustinian definition seems suited better for an afternoon tea chat.
Moving our talk from the moral plane of good vs. bad to the truly spiritual plane of sacred vs. evil surely plunges us into a deeper ontological level — without forcing us to talk literally about the devil.
* Matthew Fox.Trump and the MAGA Movement as Anti-Christ: Recognizing the Archetype of Evil in Our Time. Lake Drive Books 2026, p. 6.
Banner Image: Confrontation of Good and Evil, Virtue and Vice. French tapestry, ca. 1505. Photo by Wuselig. Wikimedia Commons.
Queries for Contemplation
Do you find relevant any definition of evil? Are you helped by calling evil the opposite of the sacred?
Related Readings by Matthew Fox
The Beloved Will Guide You: St. John of the Cross and the Triple Dark Night of Our Times (Available for pre-order.)
Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh: Transforming Evil in Soul and Society.
The Pope’s War: Why Ratzinger’ s Secret Crusade Has Imperiled the Church and How It Can Be Saved.
Original Blessing: A Primer in Creation Spirituality.
Creation Spirituality: Liberating Gifts for the Peoples of the Earth.
A Spirituality Named Compassion: Uniting Mystical Awareness with Social Justice.
Creativity: Where the Divine and the Human Meet.
Charles Burack, ed., Matthew Fox: Essential Writings on Creation Spirituality.
Adam Bucko and Matthew Fox, Occupy Spirituality: A Radical Vision for a New Generation.
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8 thoughts on “The Opposite of the Holy”
I came to the realization many years ago that evil is the reverse of living according to the Divine plan or blueprint as described in the Scriptures especially by the prophets and by Jesus. I use the simple analogy of “evil” which is the word reversal of “live” (anadrome) to support my point. I also believe that evil can be the result of the three core dimensions of the human psyche which is the seat of reason, emotion, personality, and the invisible animating force of a person. Those three, to me, are Power, Status, and Fortune (wealth) which is why Jesus rebuked each of “Satan’s” temptations about them while Jesus was praying in the desert for 40 days.
I’m not really helped in calling evil the opposite of the sacred. It’s basically obvious. Besides, one can become overly caught up in semantics. What I believe matters far more is being sacred. We need to realize and demonstrate our sacred nature such that we move others to become likewise. Become saintly; spread profound joy and laughter, transmute the evil that festers in dark places. I have heard it said that “Evil is lies and pessimistic dwellings.” We need to find the joy in life and weaponize it!
I do not believe that evil can be adequately defined, and I especially agree that equating evil with the opposite or the absence of such a subjective notion as “good” is inadequate. Defining evil as the opposite of “sacred” is also subjective and risky since the perception of “sacredness” can vary from one culture to another. Both sides of most wars, especially wars of religion, systematically demonize their adversary, each religion claiming to be on the side of the sacred and calling the other side, “infidels,” “impious,” “miscreants,” “pagans,” and, of course, “evil.”
To me, evil is a relative and subjective notion which I reserve to what I perceive as deeply warped human minds having lost the capacity to revere life and actively engaged in destroying life and causing hurt for the sake of causing hurt. I see it as an outward projection of unbearable self-hatred inherited from “upstream” evil perpetrated by other self-hating individuals. The transgenerational heritage of evil, if not addressed and healed, changes former victims of evil into evil agents themselves.
Anyone who has doubts about that tragic chain of transmission should see NAZA, the documentary co-directed by Israeli filmmakers Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor and explore the extraordinary work of Dan Bar-On with grandchildren of Holocaust survivors and grandchildren of Nazi perpetrators.
See for instance https://youtu.be/pAllwnoInvU .
Thank you once again for identifying the opposite of Evil as the Sacred. I’m letting that sink in. Now, I’m working to expand my definition of the Sacred as that Being-ness infusing every part of creation and not the transcendent quality our religious teachings often suggested.
I’m not sure I agree with “where there is evil, good is absent”. As with most dualisms, they contain each other. I think evil calls upon us to reach for the sacred/good in order to face it. So in effect, evil begets the sacred. Likewise, the sacred contains evil, in that evil is empowered when the sacred is weak. I can light a candle to push away the darkness, but when the candle goes out, darkness returns. It never actually left – it just receded.
I’ve been thinking about this a lot over the past day, mostly about whether evil has intent. I think it does. It is a force that seeks to divide, destroy, hate, and hurt. Sacred wants to honor, love, unite, and empower. We are the bridge between them. Our individual and collective choices light the candle, or blow it out.
Perhaps we are each the candle – transforming dense matter into energy and light? Calling on the sacred to subdue evil?
I love this topic. The discussion helps frame what’s happening in the world right now (and what’s happened in the past) in a way that empowers each of us to take responsibility and action, rather than wondering why “sky daddy” is being mean and neglecting us. I feel so strongly that it’s really up to each of us to make different choices. That’s the test that we keep failing.
Calling evil the opposite of the sacred is helpful because it can explain a lot of destructive actions, manifestations, illusions, and forms that have plagued humanity when we’re separated, conditioned, and unconscious of our True Heart Selves/Eternal Souls identity as being Sacred and One with Our Source Co-Creator of LOVING DIVERSE ONENESS, among All physical/nonphysical spiritual dimensions/Beings…
I can also see how Hannah Arendt, Jewish philosopher, understood the “banality of evil” after she attended the trial of the Nazi Adolf Eichmann. The banality of evil such as ignorance and the power of group mentality can also explain why so many supposedly good people on the surface, such as MAGA and other cult followers of many authoritarian, political, and religious fanatics/belief systems, can be so evil by their racism and destruction of others by seeing them as less than human in past and present history. This is why each person’s consciousness and responsibility for their own unique sacred spiritual journey is so important in Our Human Evolution of healing and incarnating Our Source Co-Creator’s Queendom/Kingdom on Earth as It Is in Heaven.
Thank you for the deep meditative inquiry. Evil being the opposite of the Sacred. There will be and are many thoughts about it. What matters is that the idea is expressed and examined. That perhaps it will be planted in other folks to see how it can/will transform their lives and we can have a more loving, kind, compassionate world. Thanks again!
For me Evil simply dwells in the realm of the collective or individual ego
consciousness, the hardest part is to surrender that or better yet empty yourself- Kenosis – as Jesus taught. Perhaps the hardest thing anyone can realize deeply is it’s not all about you.