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Translation
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What the Fathers say
Eastern Fathers
Athanasius of Alexandria
For [the soul] is made to see God and to be enlightened by him; but of its own accord in God's stead it has sought corruptible things and darkness, as the Spirit says somewhere in writing, "God made man upright, but they have sought out many inventions." Thus it has been then that people from the first discovered and contrived and imagined evil for themselves. But it is now time to say how they came down to the madness of idolatry, that you may know that the invention of idols is wholly due not to good but to evil. …
Western Saints
Augustine of Hippo
The reason that we, being bad, have a good Father is in order that we may not always remain bad. No bad person can make a good one. If no bad person can make a good one, how can a bad man make himself good? The only one who can make a good person out of a bad one is the one who is always good. "Heal me, Lord," he says, "and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved." Why do they say to me, silly people saying silly things, "You can save yourself if you want to"? …
Bede
Our struggle against the vices has not been naturally implanted in us by God our Father and Creator but is proved to have befallen us from our love of this world, which we preferred to our Creator. For God made human beings upright, and they have involved themselves in endless questions, as Solomon bears witness. Hence James also says, "Let no one, when he is tempted, say that he is tempted by God. For God is not the instigator of evil, for he himself tempts no one. …
Bernard of Clairvaux
The soul was made not only to the image, but also to the likeness. You ask in what it is like? Hear first concerning the image. The Word is truth, is wisdom, is justice: and this is the image. Of what? Of justice, of wisdom, and of truth. For this image is justice from justice, wisdom from wisdom, truth from truth, as it were light from light, God from God. The soul is none of these things, because it is not the image. Yet it is capable of them, and desirous of them, and perhaps on that account it is to the image. …
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