BOOK REVIEW: DELIVER US FROM EVIL

Deliver Us from Evil is a classic book with a timeless message on the subject of evil. Written by beloved speaker and author Ravi Zacharias, the book is divided into three sections:

Section One: The Moods of the Present

Section Two: Voices from the Past

Section Three: The Face of the Future

In Section One : The Moods of the Present, Ravi proposes that there are three theories that give birth to unspeakable evil in any society, and the theories are: Secularism, Pluralism and Privatisation.

According to Ravi, secularism (the assertion that public life is to be conducted without reference to religion) is the first step to unmanageable evil. In his own words: ‘ If the supernatural is irrational, what will the secularist use as a point of reference for rationality?...Or is each one to depend on his or her own inner voice? How then does one differentiate between the inner voices of reason and unreason in that case?’

Ravi waxes philosophical here and proposes that secularism leads to a loss of shame because there is no reference point for evil. He further states that the evils done to children by responsible adults and family members are not crimes born of hate but are passions unleashed and justified by a conscience bereft of shame or remorse.

Pluralism as defined in the book is the existence...of a number of world views, each vying for the allegiance of individuals, with no single world view dominant. According to Ravi, the great hazard of pluralism is the faulty deduction in the name of tolerance that all beliefs can be equally true. Ravi states that secularism leads to a loss of shame and pluralism leads to a loss of reason. He further asserts that while secularism breeds an evil that can victimize those we love, pluralism breeds an evil that victimizes those different from us, those we do not claim to love.

Privatisation of religion as described in the book is the socially required and legally enforced separation of our private lives and public personas. It mandates that issues of ultimate meaning be relegated to our private spheres. Ravi proposes that privatisation leads to a loss of meaning and that it victimizes the self. According to him, to imprison a sacred belief within a private realm is to kill the belief until people no longer know who they are. He further makes the assertion that the premise of privatisation is flawed because it assumes that one's private beliefs have nothing to do with public life, whereas in reality who we are in public is determined by what we learned and cherished in private.

In Section Two, Ravi goes on to refer to the history of great civilizations in the past and lessons that can be learned from them, while in Section Three, he makes a case for moral absolutes which enables man have a point of reference. According to him, the first step in receiving deliverance from evil is accepting that there are moral boundaries that should not be crossed. He postulates that the refusal to draw a line between the sacred and the profane, the pulling down of moral fences, is what leads to uncontrollable evil in any society. He also argues that true and effective morality is dependent upon reverence for God, stating that without reverence there is no morality and without God there is no reverence, thus, the inability of the perpetrator of wickedness to feel emotion is the result of a society that has trained itself not to feel guilty when wrong is committed.

Deliver Us from Evil is a profound and philosophical book and it is clear from the book that Ravi Zacharias is a student of history as well as an ardent reader of literature, hence the quotes from books like  Oscar Wilde's Picture of Dorian Gray, Goethe’s Faust, etc. This serves as an excellent motivator for reading Ravi Zacharias’ books. If one will not read them for the philosophical content contained therein, one can at least read his books to tap into the wealth of history and literature contained within.