Evil and the Divine Will

Οὐδεμία κακοῦ γένεσις ἐκ θείου βουλήματος τὴν ἀρχὴν ἔσχεν· ἥ γὰρ ἄν ἐξω μέμψεως ἦν ἡ κακία, Θεὸν ἑαυτῆς ἐπιγραφομένη ποιητήν καὶ πατέρα· ἀλλ' ἐμφύεται πως τὸ κακὸν ἔνδοθεν, τῇ προαιρέσει τότι συνεστάμενον, ὅταν τις ἀπὸ τοῦ καλοῦ γένηται τῆς ψυχῆς ἀναχώρησις. Καθάπερ γὰρ ἡ ὅρασις φύσεώς ἐστιν ἐνέργεία· ἡ δέ πήρωσις, στέρησίς ἐστι τῆς φυσικῆς ἐνεργείας· οὕτως καὶ ἡ ἀρετὴ πρὸς τὴν κακίαν ἀνθέστηκεν. Οὐ γὰρ ἔστιν ἄλλην κακίας γένεσιν ἐννοῆσαι, ἡ ἀρετῆς ἀπουσίαν. Ὥσπερ γὰρ τοῦ φωτὸς ὑφαιρεθέντος ὁ ζόφος ἐπηκολούθησε, παρόντος δὲ οὐκ ἔστιν·οὕτως ἔως ἄν ᾕ τὸ αγαθὸν ἐν τῇ φύσει, ἀνύρκτόν ἐστι καθ’ ἑαυτὸ ἡ κακία· ἡ δὲ τοῦ κρείτονος ἀναχώρησις γίνεται τοῦ ἐναντίου γένεσις. Ἐπεί οὔν τοῦτο τῆς αὐτεξουσιότητός ἐστι τὸ ἰδίωμα, τὸ κατ' ἐξουσίαν ἀναιρεῖσθαι τὸ καταθύμιον, οὐχ ὁ Θεός σοι τῶν παρόντων ἐστὶν αἴτιος κακῶν, ἀδέσποτόν τε καὶ ἄνετόν σοι κατασκευάσας τὴν φύσιν, ἀλλ' ἡ ἀβουλία τὸ χεῖρον ἀντὶ τοῦ κρείττονος προελομένη.    Ἅγιος Γρηγόριος Νύσσης , Λόγος Κατήχητικος Ὁ Μέγας

No beginning of evil had its source in the Divine will; for wickedness would have been blameless were it inscribed with God as its maker and father; but evil somehow grows from within, brought forth at that moment when the soul withdraws from the sublime. Just as sight is an activity of nature, and blindness a privation of that natural activity, such is the opposition of virtue and vice. For it is not to be thought there is another origin of vice but the absence of virtue. For as when the light is removed darkness follows, and while the former is present the latter is not, so as long as the good is in the nature, vice is a thing that has no inherent existence; and the departure of the better state is the origin of its opposite. This, then, is the specific property of the free will, that it chooses of itself, and so God is not the cause of present evils, seeing that He has established your nature so as to be its own master, but rather the cause is the thoughtlessness that chooses the worse instead of the better. Saint Gregory of Nyssa, The Great Catechism