This post basically began as a note-to-self, but I have decided to publish here in the hope that it might also benefit others.
The following excerpt from Nikolai Berdyaev's Freedom and the Spirit (bold added) provides a pertinent warning about the dangers of obsessing over evil, which, I confess, I occasionally do.
"Evil must be unmasked if it is to be defeated, for ignorance or denial of evil weakens our resistance to it. Man must learn how to 'try the spirits', for he is often in the grips of devils who appear as angels of light. But there is also another danger, that of a too exclusive concentration upon evil, which consists in seeing it everywhere, and which by an exaggeration of its power and attraction amounts to a continuous obsession with it. Man is thus plunged into an atmosphere of suspicion and mistrust. He has more faith in the power of Satan than in that of God; he believes more in Antichrist than in Christ Himself. Thus a most pernicious spiritual tendency is set in motion which spells destruction for all positive and creative life. Evil has its effect upon man not only when he denies its existence, but also when he exaggerates its significance."
The following excerpt from Nikolai Berdyaev's Freedom and the Spirit (bold added) provides a pertinent warning about the dangers of obsessing over evil, which, I confess, I occasionally do.
"Evil must be unmasked if it is to be defeated, for ignorance or denial of evil weakens our resistance to it. Man must learn how to 'try the spirits', for he is often in the grips of devils who appear as angels of light. But there is also another danger, that of a too exclusive concentration upon evil, which consists in seeing it everywhere, and which by an exaggeration of its power and attraction amounts to a continuous obsession with it. Man is thus plunged into an atmosphere of suspicion and mistrust. He has more faith in the power of Satan than in that of God; he believes more in Antichrist than in Christ Himself. Thus a most pernicious spiritual tendency is set in motion which spells destruction for all positive and creative life. Evil has its effect upon man not only when he denies its existence, but also when he exaggerates its significance."
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