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occurred if we are to avoid saying that the universe was created with and
perhaps through these forces of chaos. If the force of Chaos is involved in the
act of creation itself, then our interpretation is Manichaean.
In his Bibliological Dictionary, Men tells us that the Scriptures allow for
two Falls: a Cosmic Fall that leads to a partial divergence of natural processes
from the ways of God, and an anthropological Fall, that leaves Adam in the
chasm, struggling against God. In both cases it is feedom that makes the Fall
possible, and in both cases the Fall is only partial in its corruption of God’s
good design for the world. For Men, this partial corruption allows for the
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possibility of redemption in the case of both Falls .
Men’s understanding of this Cosmic Fall and its relation to a possible
Angelic Fall is complex. Whereas in the Bibliological Dictionary and Isagogics
there is one cosmic fall, resulting in a cosmic spiritual evil, on other occasions
(such as in About Good and Evil) Men splits this spiritual evil into two further
kinds: the elementary evil of chaos and demonic evil that is purely spiritual and
personalised. We can see this split in the early Magicism and Monotheism (written
in 1960s). Whether this is as a result of writing for different readerships or a
change in Men’s understanding is difficult to ascertain, but in any case the two
are always closely connected. In Isagogics, we are told that ‘in the Bible the
existence and ministry of angels are closely connected with natural
forces/powers’, and Men refers to Rev. 14:18 and 16:5 as evidence. We shall
discuss the connection between the two in Magicism and Monotheism below.
Genesis 1:2 says: ‘the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the
face of the deep’. Men views this as a straightforward indication that God’s
power has brought into being a world that is chaotic. It is not clear where this
chaos has come from, since the author of Genesis 1 does not tell us. Men, in
Magicism and Monotheism believes the source must have been ‘only positive,
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creative and full of powerful potential’ . It is at this point that Men suggests
the possibility of a disrupted World Soul in his discussion in Magicism and
Monotheism as a way of explaining the occurrence of chaos.
Men, however, sees Genesis 1:1 as the beginning, a move from the
eternal to the temporal . There is no Chaos present in the events of this first
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22 Men: Bibliological Dictionary 1, p285
23 Men: Magicism and Monotheism, Appendix 8 Part 9
24 Men: Isagogics, p107

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