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Thus far we have determined the definition of evil, the
privation of an owing good; the subject of evil; and the
division of evil. We now turn to the cause or origin of
evil.
In the second article of the preceding question we stated
that God could impede evil, and that He nevertheless
wills to allow it because of some greater good. We thus
assigned the final cause of the divine permission of evil,
but not the cause of evil itself. In treating of the
cause of evil itself, St. Thomas asks three things:
1. whether good can be the cause of evil; 2. whether
the highest good, which is God, is the cause of evil;
3. whether there is some supreme evil which is the cause
of all evils. In this last article he refutes the
Manichaeans.
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