Aquinas' Theology of Moral Evil

Aquinas notes that God is always present as the transcendent primary origin of all the good we do. In the case of evil actions however Aquinas provides a subtle analysis that is of major significance for the history of theology. A free action that is not grounded in the truth is deprived of rectitude with regard to the moral truth and is therefore ontologically disordered by privation. This falling away from the plenitude of being is the evil in us Augusta noted so well. We diminish ourselves by evil and become less than we were intended to be because we do not refer our actions to the moraltruth about ourselves but walk in the darkness of the lie one that diminishes us in