THE SYMBOLISM

OF EVIL
PAUL RICOEUR

Translated from the French by

Emerson Buchanan

BEACON PRESS BOSTON

 PUBLISHER'S NOTE

This BetJ&On paperbtJ&k edition reprints Volume XVII

of th6 Rlu.IGIOUB PERsPEanvES SEIUES
which is plant14d and edited by RUTH NANDA .ANslmN
Dr. Anshm's Epilogue to this reprint appears on page 358

Contents

PART I
THE PRlMARY SYMBOLS: DEFILEMENT, SIN, Gun.T

Introduction: PHENOMENOLOGY OF "CONFESSION" 3

1. Speculation, Myth, and Symbol 3
2. Criteriology of Symbols 10
3. The Philosophical ''Re-enactment'' of Confession 19

Chapter I. DEFILEMENT 25
1. The Impure 25
2. Ethical Terror 29
3. The Symbolism of Stain 33
4. The Sublimation of Dread 40
Copyright 1967 by Paul IUcoeur
Fint published as a Beacon Paperback in 1969 by arrangement Qhapter II. SIN 47
with Harper 8t Row, Publishers, hu:orporated
Beacon Press books arc published under the auspices of 1. The Category of ''Before God": The Covenant 50
the Unitarian Unive:rsalist Association
2. The Infinite Demand and the Finite Commandment 54
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any
manner whatsoever without written pcrmisswn except in the case of brief 3. The "Wrath of God" 63
.9._uotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. For information address
Harper 8t Row, Publishers, hu:orporated, 49 East 33rd Street, New York, 4. The Symbolism of Sin: (1) Sin as "Nothingness" 70
N. Y.10016.
5. The Symbolism of Sin: (2) Sin as Positive 81
Printed in the United States of America
International StandaYd Book NumblY: 0-JJO'J0-1.567...9
Third printing, April19'/2
 CONTENTS CONTENTS

Chapter III. GUILT 100 Chaptn II. THE WICKED GOD AND THE ''TRAGIC"
VISION OF EXISTENCE 211
1. Birth of a New Stage 101
108 1. The Pre-Tragic Themes 213
2. Guilt and Penal Imputation
2. The Crux of the Tragic 218
3. Scrupuloumess 118
3. Deliverance from the Tragic or Deliverance within the
4. The Impasse of Guilt 139
Tragic? 227

Conclusion: RECAPITULATION OF THE SYMBOLISM Chaptsr III. THE "ADAMIC" MYTH AND THE
OF EVIL IN THE CONCEPT OF THE SERVILE ''ESCHATOLOGICAL" VISION OF lnSTORY 232
WILL 151
1. The Penitential Motivation of the "Adamic" Myth 235
2. The Structure of the Myth: The "Instant'' of the Fall 243
PART II
3. The ''Lapse of Tune" of the Drama of Temptation 252
THE "MYTHs" OF THE BEGINNING AND OF THE END
4. Justification and Eschatological Symbols 260

Introduction: THE SYMBOLIC FUNCTION OF MYTHS 161 Chaptn V. THE CYCLE OF THE MYTHS 306

1. From the Primary Symbols to Myths 161 1. From the Statics to the Dynamics of the Mytht 306
2. Myth and Gnosia: The Symbolic Function of the 2. The Reaffirmation of the Tragic 310
Narration 164 3. The Appropriation of the Myth of Chaos 326
3. Toward a "Typology" of the Myths of the Beginning and 4. The .Struggle between the Adamic Myth and the Myth
the End of Evil 171 of Exile 330

Chapter I. THE DRAMA OF CREATION AND THE Chapter IV. THE MYTH OF THE EXILED SOUL AND
"RITUAL" VISION OF THE WORLD 175 SALVATION Tlm.OUGH KNOWLEDGE 279
1. The Archaic Myth: "Soul" and ''Body'' 283
1. Primordial Chaos 175
2. The Final Myth 289
2. The Ritual Re-enactment of the Creation and the FigUre
of the King 191 3. Salvation and Knowledge 300
3. A ''Recessive" Form of the Drama of Creation.: Th~
Conclusion: THE SYMBOL GIVES RISE TO THOUGHT 347
Hebrew King 198
4. A "Mutant" Form of the Drama of Creation: The EpilogU6:' RELIGIOUS PERSPECTIVES,
Hellenic Titan 206 Its Meaning and Purpose by Ruth Nanda Anshen 358
 Introduction:
Phenomenology
of ~~confession"

1. SPECULATION, M~. AND SYMBOL

BOW SHALL WB KAXE fr.e transition from the possibility of evil in

m&iitOitsreality, ~fallib!!!!Y to fault?*
We will try to ~the iran&ition in the act by ''re-enacting"
.in ourselve!! the confession that the reiigipua consciousness makes
of it.
Of course, this !Epatheti!':...,~aCbp'!l!t in ima~<m.. cannot
.take the place of a philosophy of fault. It will still remain to be
seen what the philosopher makes of it-that is to say, how he
incorporates it in~ the dia'caune on man begun in the first volume
of this work under the in:Buence of the dialectic of the finite and
tbe infi!'ite. This final ttevelopment will occupy the third volume.
We cannot yet anticipate the direction it will take, since we do not
yet know the new situation from which philosophy will have to
take its bearings.i . . .
~ut if the "re-enactment" of the confession of the evil in man by
tbe :religious consciousness doea IJQt take the place of philosophy,
* Tho pzesent volume ~ the IIICODd in the author' Finftth tmd Guilt.
The lim volume baa been traD'leted under the title: FallibZ. Mtm (H.
Aegnery, 1966) .-Ta: .
1 See the c:onc:1nding c:bapter, "The &,mbol Givel Rile to 'l'housJrt...