Perhaps it is only the committed atheist who does not have to wrestle with why there is so much suffering, cruelty and misery in this world.

For someone with no belief in a Creator who loves us so much that every hair on our head is counted (Luke 12:7, Matt 10:30) there is no contradiction – the world is the way it is, because it is.

For everyone else, it can be a barrier to fully accepting belief, or to holding on to belief, especially when the pain is deep and inexplicable.

The problem of evil

The problem of evil has exercised philosophers and theologians from Epicurus, through the Book of Job, Irenaeus, Augustine to modern writers such as John Hick in his comprehensive 1985 book ‘Evil and the God of Love ‘¹ ((Hick, John H. Evil and the God of Love. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 1985.)) each providing one or more theories, or theodicies, of why suffering is allowed by God, from it being punishment for sin, necessary purification before intimacy with God, or the consequence of free will.

When good intentions hurt

Theodicies can make sense, especially when combined, but they rarely provide emotional comfort or assurance.

In fact, they can sometimes be more harmful than helpful when presented to someone in pain and confusion.

As I watched a friend of mine struggle through a difficult period in her life, I saw the barbs of ‘this will make you stronger’ ‘everything happens for a reason’ ‘there is a lesson in this somewhere’, all well intended, all attempting to make sense of the senseless, but actually only prompting self-doubt, ‘was I not okay before?’, to the pain.

At least people were too polite to suggest that her suffering was punishment for sin…

The case for anti-theodicy

An approach to the problem of evil that I find compelling is ‘anti-theodicy’.

David Shatz explains that not only can theodicies harm our relationships, they also do not work when trying to convince someone struggling with belief, and we all have to accept that we cannot know God’s reasoning ² – not only is Job told clearly by God that he can have no insight to God’s plans (Job 38:4, 39:1) but in a Talmudic passage even Moses was not told why the righteous suffer and the wicked prosper. ³

From theory to action

Anti-theodicy does not provide a solution to the problem of evil, rather it directs us away from theorising and towards action to reduce suffering, to support and console, and to accept with grace.

In these difficult times, this is what is perhaps most necessary from people of faith.

• Rebecca Shaw is a chartered environmentalist who works at The Just Housing Group in the social housing sector in the UK. Currently carrying out post-graduate studies in philosophy, theology and religions at the University of Lucerne, her studies are informed by her interests in interfaith relations, inclusion and church history.

Footnotes

1. Hick, John H. Evil and the God of Love. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 1985. ↩︎
2. Shatz, David. “Should theists eschew theodicies?” in Jewish Philosophy in an Analytic Age edited by Samuel Lebens, Dani Rabinowitz, and Aaron Segal, pp. 198 – 221. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019. Pg 318. ↩︎
3. Shatz, David. “On Constructing a Jewish Theodicy,” in The Blackwell Companion to The Problem of Evil, edited by Justin McBrayer and Daniel Howard-Synder, pp. 309 – 325. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley-Blackwell, 2013. Pp. 320-321. ↩︎