Apologetics: Evil, Suffering, and Hell in Christian Thought

The Historical and Experiential Roots of the Problem of Evil

The facts of history and experience that give rise to the problem of evil are primarily war, pain, and death—in short, suffering. This is what C. S. Lewis describes as the problem of pain: Why would a good God create a world in which people suffer and are doomed to die? Why does it seem, moreover, that innocent people suffer? These are the questions Lewis raises, noting in particular that "all civilisations pass away and, even while they remain, inflict peculiar sufferings of their own probably sufficient to outweigh what alleviations they may have brought to the normal pains of man."¹

¹ C. S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain (Samizdat University Press, 2016), 2.

Rational Reflection on God and Evil

The claim that one should reflect rationally on God and evil only when things are going relatively well is not one worth defending, because it does not reflect how most people actually operate. People tend to reflect on the problem of good and evil—on God and the devil—after they have personally experienced the reality of this conflict, most often in their own heart. Those who have been tempted, who have fallen, or who have experienced persecution are the ones most likely to have the incentive to reflect on this mystery. That is why one would not expect someone whose life is pleasant and satisfactory to engage with the more challenging aspects of faith and religion.

However, that does not mean one shouldn't reflect on these questions when life is relatively calm and easy. One should cultivate a spiritual and interior life in which even small struggles can be offered up and small sacrifices made to assist those who struggle more mightily within the great mystical body.²

² Marilyn McCord Adams and Robert Merrihew Adams, The Problem of Evil (Oxford University Press, 1990), 36.

Sin, Irrationality, and the Possibility of Theodicy

Augustine defined sin rather rationally when he described it as misplaced love or misplaced affection. Instead of directing all one's love toward God, people with a fallen, sinful nature tend to place their love in creatures or in pleasures. They develop bad, sinful habits because they attach their love to things that do not lead them to God. Sin and evil can thus be rationally understood or explained, even if they may appear as irrational acts in the broader picture.

Rationally speaking, one ought to love God with one's whole heart, mind, and soul—yet people so often fail to do so because they give themselves over to their passions, which are irrational. Nevertheless, we understand the lure of the irrational and can reflect on it in rational terms. This is precisely what makes theodicy possible: sin, though irrational in its orientation, is not beyond rational analysis.

Defining Evil: Difficulty and Distinction

The problem of evil is the problem of reconciling the existence of evil with the existence of an omnipotent, omniscient, and all-good God. An argument from evil, by contrast, is an argument in which one reasons that because evil exists, God must be lacking in at least one—or possibly all three—of those qualities.³

³ John S. Feinberg, The Many Faces of Evil (Crossway Books, 2004), 215.

Two scriptural passages illustrate that God hates evil. In Proverbs 8:13: "The fear of the LORD is to hate evil; Pride and arrogance and the evil way, and the perverted mouth, I hate." And in Psalm 26:5: "I hate the assembly of evildoers, and I will not sit with the wicked." In both verses, God speaks through Sacred Scripture to show that evil has no place in Him and He seeks no part in it. Evil, understood as an absence of the good, is fundamentally incompatible with God's nature. God is not perverse and thus cannot love evil, as Proverbs demonstrates. Nor can God dwell with those who love evil, for they will hate and destroy Him—as they did when they crucified Christ.

As N. T. Wright points out, evil is a word that gets thrown around a great deal and used in a simplistic manner.⁴ Politicians used it carelessly after 9/11 and continue to do so. Evil, however, is not something to be taken lightly, nor is it a word that should be wielded for political purposes. Evil is real and must be acknowledged, but its meaning must also be carefully examined—otherwise we risk defining it in ways that are unrealistic. Evil could be defined as the absence of good, but it may also be defined as hatred of the good that God has created and that God is. Definitions of this kind discourage casual use of the word because they oblige one to stop and think about the good and what it means to love the good.

⁴ N. T. Wright, Evil and the Justice of God (InterVarsity Press, 2006), 14.

Bibliography

Adams, Marilyn McCord, and Robert Merrihew Adams. The Problem of Evil. Oxford University Press, 1990.

Feinberg, John S. The Many Faces of Evil. Crossway Books, 2004.

Lewis, C. S. The Problem of Pain. Samizdat University Press, 2016.

Wright, N. T. Evil and the Justice of God. InterVarsity Press, 2006.