* The following was written for a Philosophy of Religion class I am taking. Here was the prompt for the essay:
You will write one short three-page, double-spaced paper (do not go onto the fourth page!!). Here you will do a biblical and theological reflection on the problem of evil. This is not a research paper. You want to explore the question: “How does our biblical and theological framework provide resources or parameters for our investigation into the problem of evil?”
Christians have an abundance of resources available to them in terms of biblical material and theological reflection to aid in approaching the problem of evil—both its philosophical and existential aspects. In order to briefly canvas some of this terrain four categories of theology will be considered: God, Sin, Jesus Christ, and Eschatology.[1]
God. The God of the Bible is the sovereign Creator who continues to sustain all things in existence. Further, God is good, unstained by evil. In that the traditional set-up of the problem of evil attempts to play God’s attributes of omnipotence and goodness against one another, it is important to maintain both attributes in their biblical fullness. We ought not to relinquish either attribute in a quest to neutralize the objection. God’s sovereignty, as manifested in the biblical storyline, also shows us that God’s plans and intentions are not always immediately apparent. The story of Joseph with its pain and setbacks leading to ultimate vindication in a different season demonstrate this. The story of Job shows us as well that, at times, God’s heavenly dictates are inscrutable to those on the earth. This provides impetus for elements of the “skeptical theist” approach to the problem of evil.
Another key component is the glory of God. Theologians such as Jonathan Edwards argue that God’s glory is the ultimate value in the cosmos and is the chief thing that God is seeking to manifest in all his deeds. God’s glory can be analyzed in terms of his essential nature (which cannot increase or decrease), his excellent deeds (which express God’s excellent being and character), and the epistemic goods which flow from conscious agents becoming acquainted with and appreciating God’s exalted character revealed in excellent deeds).[2] This fuller understanding of God’s glory is important if one wants to properly assess the possibilities for a greater-good defense. Many times, the “greater-goods” contemplated in answers to the problem of evil revolve around human-centered goods. A focus on God’s glory as the ultimate value as displayed and understood opens up larger vistas to contemplate. In other words, divine-centered goods needed to be added to the mix as well.
Sin. A full doctrine of sin shows its extensive influence and powerful reverberations across all relationships. Rebellion against God creates fractured relationship between humanity and (1) God, (2) other humans, (3) ourselves (in psychological disruptions), and (4) the created order itself which “groans” under the burden of the curse of God. This gruesome, four-fold fracturing is important to acknowledge since it shows that the world, as it currently exists, is not fully “normal.” It is not the way it was intended to be by God. It also reminds us that evil and pain are not illusory but, rather, concrete realities that must be dealt with. Under the category of sin mention should be made of demonic evil. The New Testament in particular draws attention to these forces. Not only does this show us that the problem of evil is much deeper and intense than some allow but it also may be of service in explaining some other elements of evil.[3]
Jesus Christ. At the center of Christian theism is Jesus Christ. In his life we see One who is continually fighting evil and suffering in exorcisms and healings. Thus, we see that passivity in the face of evil and suffering has no place. We see Jesus weeping and angry in the face of evil and suffering. In this we see proper emotional responses to evil and suffering. And in seeing the suffering of Jesus of himself, we see that, in some strange way, not even God himself is immune from suffering. The fact that Jesus has suffered is often brought up in the New Testament as a hope-inducing example for believers who are going through suffering. Suffering is to be expected for those who following the Suffering Servant. Not only has Jesus suffered, but he has also been raised from the dead. The resurrection provides a perspective on the problem of evil in which a horrendous evil—the crucifixion of the Son of God—can be overcome by the great good of the vindication of the Jesus the Messiah and its attendant blessings flowing to billions of people.[4] Furthermore, the very complex of events consisting of the incarnation of the Son of God, his suffering for atonement, and the resurrection of Jesus from the dead is a great-making feature of the world. Alvin Plantinga and others have drawn attention to particularly the incarnation and atonement as indicative of a contingent good-making characteristic of our world “that towers above all the rest of the contingent states of affairs included in our world.”[5] With this datum, Plantinga is able to construct a justification for God’s permitting evil, namely, that it will allow for the extremely great-goods of the incarnation and atonement.
Eschatology. The Christian vision of history is linear and purposive. God is bringing the cosmos to a teleological goal—the “summing up of all things in Christ” (Ephesians 1.10). This provides assurance and hope at an existential level. This also factors into how we calculate the amount of good and evil. John Frame explains, “Since the ultimate theodicy is future, we must now deal with the problem of evil by faith. We cannot total up the present evils against the present goods and from that calculation exonerate god of blame.”[6] While we wait for the eschatological fullness of God’s plan we philosophize in hope and sing, “how long, O Lord?”[7]
[1] I will largely refrain from proof-texting to demonstrate the biblical basis of the individual points in an effort to conserve space.
[2] I was helped to develop this tri-partite understanding of God’s glory by Daniel M. Johnson, “Calvinism and the Problem of Evil: A Map of the Territory” in Calvinism and the Problem of Evil, eds. David E. Alexander and Daniel M. Johnson (Eugene, Ore: Pickwick Publications, 2016), 44-45.
[3] Alvin Plantinga brings up the possibility of some forms of natural evil being the result of demonic beings in God, Freedom, and Evil (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 1974), 58.
[4] The notion of “horrendous evil” comes from Marilyn McCord Adams and she specifically mentions the crucifixion of Jesus as an example of a horrendous evil in her essay “Horrendous Evil and the Goodness of God” in The Problem of Evil, eds. Marilyn McCord Adams and Robert Merrihew Adams (New York: Oxford University Press, 1990), 212.
[5] Alvin Plantinga, “Supralapsarianism, or ‘O Felix Culpa,’” in Christian Faith and the Problem of Evil, ed. Peter Van Inwagen (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 2004), 1-25; reprinted in Michael Peterson, ed. The Problem of Evil: Selected Readings—2nd ed. (Notre Dame, Indiana: University of Notre Dame Press, 2017), 368.
[6] John Frame, “The Problem of Evil,” in Suffering and the Goodness of God, eds. Christopher W. Morgan and Robert A. Peterson (Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway, 2008), 156.
[7] Kristin M. Swenson has written of the Psalms that they “provide a vocabulary and language for expressing pain, a grammar of pain, which continues to resonate for people struggling with difficulties understanding and describing their particular experiences of suffering.” Quoted in David B. Calhoun, “Poems in the Dark: My Cancer and God’s Grace” in Suffering and the Goodness of God, eds. Christopher W. Morgan and Robert A. Peterson (Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway, 2008), 186.
