And the earth was without form...

Karen Gunderson (oil painting)

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.

And God saw the light, and it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.

Book of Genesis, King James Bible

This well known account of creation, seems to suggest that evil was pre-existent in the "darkness (...) upon the face of the deep" and the "spirit of God" did not create it. He came in with order, the light that "was good", and the idea of chaos ("earth without form, and void") is imbued with evil ("darkness"). In this context, the "good", in the process of creation, is only present in the final order configured upon chaos. But I tend to see chaos as an important aspect of creation, the lack of form and the "darkness" as necessary steps towards order. Creation cannot, it seems to me, to be properly understood mainly as order, but as order from chaos.