What ontological status does evil have?
Different conceptions of evil:
- Augustine: evil as privation.
- Gnostic systems: lower hostile powers.
- Kabbalah: shells and imbalance.
- ACIM: unreality/error.
- myth: Dark Lord as apparently real enemy.
Evil has experiential and symbolic power but no independent divine substance. It is distortion, deprivation, misrelation, and false belief enacted through real choices.