An almighty God: power and character

An almighty God: power, compassion and suffering 3
An almighty God: power and character

In 1887, the British politician and historian Lord Acton (1834 –1902) observed that ‘power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely’. As a result, ‘great men are almost always bad men’. It is an idea that has shaped our assumptions about public office and the risks of concentrating too much power in too few hands. Human nature is morally fragile and is placed under such severe stress by the temptations and privileges of power that it often proves incapable of resisting them...