Jesus taught *the inward origin of human evil*. Its
source has to be traced neither to a bad environment nor to a faulty
education (although both these can have a powerful conditioning
influence on impressionable young people), but rather to our 'heart',
our inherited and twisted nature. One might almost say that Jesus
introduced us to Freudianism before Freud. At least what he called
the 'heart' is roughly equivalent to what Freud called the
'unconscious'. It resembles a very deep well. The thick deposit of
mud at the bottom is usually unseen, and even unsuspected. But when
the waters of the well are stirred by the winds of violent emotion,
the most evil-looking, evil-smelling filth bubbles up from the depths
and breaks the surface -- rage, hate, lust, cruelty, jealousy and
revenge. In our most sensitive moments we are appalled by our
potentiality for evil.
--john stott
