Bearing the Cross, Part 2

-or- A Brief Treatment on the Theodicy

The Theodicy is a philosophical argument against the existence of God.  It is an old argument that has been, for hundreds of years, very compelling to people.  In fact, when I speak with most folks who were once Christian, but profess the faith no longer, the most frequent reason is, basically, the theodicy.

The argument runs like this:
God is all-powerful.
God is good, righteous and all-loving.
Yet, suffering exists.
Therefore, God cannot be both all-powerful and all-loving.
[Because, either God is all-loving and would not suffer his people to endure evil, and so God is unable to do anything about evil in the world (not all-powerful).  Or, God can do something about evil, but does not want to, and so is not all-loving, not all-good.]

This is the problem of evil.
Because evil exists as it does in the world, neither can God exist in the way that we Christians talk about him--as omnipotent and one with steadfast love.

Allow me to begin by saying that there is no answer to the problem of evil when it is phrased this way. The logic of the argument above is undeniable.  Given the reality of suffering, the first two propositions cannot both be true and the conclusion follows.  I argue, however, that the phrasing of the problem is too simplistic.  In the blogpost that follows, I will try to briefly show that the premises and assumptions behind this logical quandary are misguided, that the problem of evil is much more complex than the argument above indicates...and that the solution to the issue must be equally complex--I daresay paradoxical.

First, the argument from evil assumes that there is a God.  At root, the assumption is that God causes (or similarly allows to be caused) evil against humanity and creation.  In Part 1, we discussed a human's initial response to suffering--laying blame.  The argument above, the way it is phrased and constructed, consistently blames God for human suffering.  Yet, God is, indeed, blameless.  I invite you to see "Bearing the Cross, Part 1" for my treatment on this point, as well as my ruminations below.  St. Augustine tried to get around God's culpability by arguing that evil was not a thing-in-and-for-itself, but rather that evil was the absence of the good.  However, this only places more blame on God: now God's shadow is evil itself.  And isn't God still the cause of evil even if evil occurs when he withdraws the good?  For the argument from evil to be compelling, one must begin with the will to blame and disprove God.

Second, most of the compelling arguments against the problem of evil only serve to shift the blame.  Some alter their conception of God, that is, "admit" that God is not omnipotent, or that God does have a  malfeasant side.  If this is not another way to blame God, it is a way to blame humanity itself--we have just had the wrong idea about God.  Another argument is the argument from freedom: God has given his human creations the gift of freedom.  Humans freely choose evil.  Therefore, both evil and an omnipotent and all-loving God both exist.  Responsibility is laid squarely on the shoulders of humanity here.  We are to blame.

None of these answers are adequate to the question.

I suggest, therefore, that we take a new approach.  Instead of looking for the cause of evil, we must simply admit that suffering happens.  Even if everyone in the world lived a perfectly Christ-like life, there would still be suffering in this world, for natural disasters care little about human morality.  If we lived on a calm planet, and Eden, in time our sun would still fizzle out or explode and we would suffer for it (yes, that is an understatement).  Suffering happens.  Why?  There is no satisfying answer to be had.  What caused it to be?  Perhaps suffering comes from the remnants of the chaos that God began to order when he started creation.  That doesn't make chaos bad, but rather it necessitates that the combination of order and chaos is not without pain and strife.

Once we just admit that suffering happens and that its causes elude us, then we are free to open our eyes to what God is doing in the midst of suffering.  For this we look to the cross, because the cross is what gives meaning to all of our suffering--not that our suffering is redemptive, but rather we have God's empathy because God, too, endured suffering.

God is all-loving: he sent his own son.  God, himself, came to experience what it was like in order to be human.  This quality of solidarity is hardly found in the world today.  God suffered to ease our suffering.  God suffered so that our suffering would not be in vain.  God came into the world and took on flesh, so that we would know of God's presence and love in the midst of chaos and suffering.

God is all-powerful: he conquered death through the death of his son.  By suffering, God destroyed suffering.  God overwhelms evil not by obliterating it, but by meeting it and transforming it.  Death is not abolished...its sting is taken away.  God is that power at work in each one of us which turns our suffering into victory.  We cannot overcome what we do not endure, what we do not meet in life.  And although God is not a micro-manager (he does not control each wind to make sure a hurricane never occurs), we know that he is always present in our lives to give us power and victory.

Soren Kierkegaard often wrote about suffering and the Christian life.  One of the more profound things he said about the Way of faith is this: "The road is not hard, but hardship is the road."  In hardship, in suffering, is when God chooses to come to us, because that is when we need love and power.  And so hardship is not a bunch of obstacles along the road of faith.  Instead, the only way is suffering itself.  That is the road that God makes easy for us, that is the burden he makes light.

What blessed joy is ours that we find God in hardship, because that is where God pours his power and love.  What blessed joy is ours that God does not cause or allow suffering, but combats it in the only effective way there is, and precisely when we need the help.  What blessed joy is ours that God is strong enough and loving enough to use the cross to solve the problem of evil.