Raymond Lam „The problem of Evil and Theodicy: A Non-Classical Approach

through the Philosophy of the Gospels‟

THE PROBLEM OF EVIL AND THEODICY: A NON-

CLASSICAL APPROACH THROUGH THE
PHILOSOPHY OF THE GOSPELS

Raymond Lam

This paper contends that for Christian philosophy, the classical approaches to Problem of
Evil, especially those that attempt to justify God‟s omnipotence, are not adequate
answers to the pressing problems of suffering, and that the canonical Gospels offer more
valid contentions for defending his benevolence in the face of gross evil. It is therefore
attempting to contribute a voice to a long-running debate between classical theist
approaches and postmodern (or otherwise non-classical) arguments for God‟s validity in
a world saturated with evil. Positioning itself against the traditional Augustinian and
Iranean schools of theodicy, the essay returns to the original ideas that answered the
earliest Christians when they were confronted by adversity, the plight of the weak, the
wrongdoings of the powerful, but also the death of their teacher and leader, Jesus. These
are the ideas recorded in Mark, Matthew, Luke and John, in which contemporary
philosophy of religion has found itself exploring new outposts to engage the Problem of
Evil. It will also be argued that the nature of these Gospel defences is primarily
eschatological, although they cannot be compartmentalized into any single category of
religious philosophy. This paper is not intended to serve an expressly Christian purpose.
Rather, its main objective is to give a greater exposure to less traditional defences of God
in the strictly philosophical context of theodicy.

Introduction

Theodicy is the justification of God‟s action, or inaction, in the face of great suffering

and evil. Its grimmest struggle, philosophically and historically, has been against the

evidential Problem of Evil. There is no treatise on theodicy in the New Covenant1,

and as a formal subject, it is not present either. However, I would be doing injustice to

Christians if I assert that there is no response to the Problem of Evil in their Scriptures

because, if the Gospels compose the zenith of spiritual life for Christians, the charge

that there is no defence of their God in the face of very real evil is an extremely

1
Lee (2005)

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serious one. This is because the Problem of Evil presents the gravest challenge to the

existence of an all-powerful, all-knowing, all-loving God. While this God may not

always be the God of the New Testament, it is the conventional view of Divinity that

has come to be due to the influence of classical theism. The fact of evil powerfully

challenges the assertion of God‟s omnipotence and omnibenevolence through

murdered babies, the torture of innocent animals and children by psychopaths, and

natural disasters that destroy thousands of lives, many of them Christian.

Consequently, the endeavour to preserve this omni-God, this awkward fusion of the

passionate Hebraic God with the deistic, transcendent Deity of the Greek

philosophers, has abounded in difficulties. Dostoevsky‟s small child, beating its chest

in tortured sorrow2, remains bitterly unswayed by apologists. Traditional apologetics

have remained unable to achieve a final, satisfactory refutation. But is God

necessarily omnimax? According to Peter Geach‟s apologetic lecture on „The

Irrelevance of Omnipotence‟, Christians are obliged to hold that God is „almighty‟,

but not omnipotent.3 Therefore, all the problems regarding the omnimax God entail

only the rejection of a particular kind of belief.4 In fact, there is a different direction,

one that is perhaps grounded in a more concretely affirmed belief in the New

Testament: God‟s providence in his interaction with humanity within history as „

redemptive history‟5, or as compensation for evil. This culminates in the Almighty‟s

revelation of Jesus. The future culmination of this historical interaction is the

eschatological hope for Christians. For the faithful, it is a pilgrimage of struggle

towards the Celestial City6, where a traveller can be confident that his or her final

outcome is worthwhile in the face of all tribulations in life. This is a more plausible

2
The Brothers Karamazov, trans. (1986) pt. II, bk. V, chap. 4
3
Geach (1977) pg. 30
4
Clack and Clack (1998) pg. 96
5
Conzelmann (1960) pg. 149
6
Hick (1977) pg. 386

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Raymond Lam „The problem of Evil and Theodicy: A Non-Classical Approach
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answer than continuously attempting to defend God‟s omnipotence, to which Geach

bluntly protests: „a Christian need not and cannot believe in absolute omnipotence.‟7

In this paper I hope to elaborate on how the Gospels of Mark, Matthew, Luke and

John8 outline a manner of eschatological theodicy that has been largely overlooked by

an apologetic tradition dominated by Augustinian and Iraenean ideas, many of which,

due to their reliance on the omni-God concept, have become outdated and

unsatisfactory.9 My objective, therefore, is not to provide a new manner of theodicy,

but to support my fundamental assertion that since evil poses too powerful a challenge

to „orthodox‟ theism, a study of the canonical Gospels‟ narratives is an alternative

methodology to examine answers to the Problem of Evil. The focus of a Gospel‟s

eschatological theodicy also begins relatively narrowly: The first writer, Mark,

presents a „basic‟ or preliminary examination, dealing with God‟s own suffering

along with his people. Building on the prospect of the eschaton, Matthew emphasises

the Kingdom as the final, apocalyptic answer to evil, a reality imposed by God on a

corrupt world. Luke writes of a „present‟ eschatology and Jesus‟s uplifting of the

lowly. And John‟s mysticism is centered around Christ the Word, who defeated evil

by entering the mortal time-space continuum and manifesting as the Incarnation on

Earth. So although the relation between theodicy and eschatology enjoys no

systematic discussion in the Gospels10, it is also possible to discover a more

competent idea of God than that of the medieval scholastics, an idea that confronts

evil in a real way.

7
Geach (1977) pg. 11
8
I am proceeding in the chronological order in which the Gospels were apparently written.
9
Clack and Clack (1998) pg 54, 56 – 57
10
Lee (2005)

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Preliminary Theodicies: Mark

Crucial to the background of Gospel theodicies is Jesus‟s own death. The writer of

Mark was faced with a twofold dilemma in his Christian community: the mission of

Jesus had ended in a humiliating death, but it seemed to parallel the gross, unjust

sufferings of his disciples, sufferings that they were powerless to defeat. 11 Mark

primarily attempted to show that the death of Jesus not only renewed discipleship

with the Messiah, but also revealed the paradox of the Cross. In Mark 8:27 – 30, the

Divinity humbles himself by assuming the form of man and reverses the status of the

lowly and humiliated – the crucified – and through a graphic and humiliating

narrative of the execution12, displays God‟s true power in the face of evil, both in

death and resurrection13 – and affirmation of his participation in his own followers‟

despair and helplessness. It was his gruesome death that was central in the Gospels‟

theodicies, because God not only suffered this great evil alongside his people, he

vindicated it: even the earthly, evil powers acknowledged that during Jesus‟s ultimate

humiliation and agony, „Surely this man was the Son of God‟. 14 Mark‟s Gospel was

intended to reassure readers that God‟s sovereignty was re-established, or at least still

potent in the mission of Jesus15, while his death in powerlessness and humiliation

transformed the understanding of God‟s presence and power. This arose out of the

apparent paradox of a crucified Jesus and the Son of Man coming in judgement.16

Therefore, the eschatological theodicy in some ways was not as focused on a single

theme as the others might have been. Mark interpreted Jesus‟s death as God being no

stranger to suffering. God somehow participates in innocent suffering, sharing the

11
Neville (2005)
12
Mark 15:22 – 32 and 15:33 – 41
13
Mark 16:6
14
Mark 15:38 – 39
15
Neville (2005)
16
ibid.

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pain and absorbing it into God‟s own being to be transformed.17 In the context of

apocalyptic theodicy, there is some in its purest sense18, but this is not as strongly

emphasized as the later Gospels. It was Matthew who would expand on this

transformation of power/powerlessness and glory/humiliation, and go further to write

of this transformation as an eschatological future that supplants evil entirely, with

God firmly in power.

Matthew’s Kingdom

John Hick concludes his book Evil and the God of Love with a hopeful affirmation of

the role eschatology plays in answering the problem of evil in that there might be a

future good so great as to render bearable, in retrospect, the totality of human

experience, with all its wickedness and suffering as well as all its sanctity and

happiness.19 With this one hope comes many implications of eschatological belief in

response to gross suffering. It seems almost a natural religious evolution of the

explanation of temporal unjust events to the events that will take place in the future.

Therefore eschatology is intertwined with history; humanity‟s history is played out

and interpreted as a theodicy. This is the background of history that was given

meaning in the prophecies of the Old Testament, from the words of the prophets and

the psalms.20 Just as eschatological hopes dragged on and were frustrated, the visions

became increasingly „final‟, until such visions entailed a New Eon altogether, one free

from evil. The hope was that God would succeed where human beings failed.21 The

17
ibid.
18
Mark 8:38, 13:26, 14:62
19
Hick (1977) pg. 386
20
O‟Brien (2005)
21
O‟Brien (2005)

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apocalyptic tradition of the vindication of the righteous22 carried on from Judaism and

penetrated into Christian thought. Isaiah spoke of a King who will reign in triumph,

where those who are suffering most shall enjoy justice.23 Now this „End of Days‟

became a key concept of the teachings of Jesus. Christians believed that Christ

fulfilled, and will fulfil in his Second Coming, the King‟s role, with justice as his

sceptre.24 God‟s effective rule has not been established, so sin and evil persisted.

Jesus comes to establish that rule.25 His forerunner John the Baptist and he himself

therefore summon men to repent and believe the good news that God is now acting

with finality to defeat evil and establish his rule on Earth.

The writer of Matthew‟s Gospel, turning to apocalyptic ideas in the face of certain

evil and an uncertain future for Christianity, believed Jesus fulfilled the prophecies of

the Old Testament by his birth, life, death, and defeat of death.26 The triumph of

Jesus27 was the fulfilment of the prophesied new eon: the Kingdom of God.28 Now

only the Second Coming remained to fully realise Matthew‟s eschatology. As a

writer, he seemed to emphasize the advent of the Kingdom as the primary triumph of

good over evil. „Kingdom‟ in Matthew means the active kingship and rule of God.

Jesus was suffering with his people, but God remained powerful. But the Kingdom in

its full form is in the future. It will be realised at the end of the age, and every evil

will be crushed; all men judged, and the perfect eternal order established.29 The

eschatological message outlined in the Gospel was that believers could look forward

22
Psalm 72
23
Isaiah 11:1 – 9
24
Psalm 45:7
25
Filson (1971) pg. 32 – 33
26
Matthew 28:6
27
Matthew 28:18
28
Matthew 4:17
29
Filson (1971) pg. 33

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to this future because this was not a timeless reality; no verse occurs which refers to

the Kingdom as a past fact.30 The Kingdom is the result of God stepping into the

world and acting. It is this reason, that God acted,31 that constitutes the main defence

of God‟s action in the face of suffering for Matthew. Jesus‟s own powerful exorcisms

(and other miracles) indicated that the Kingdom was coming.32 His fulfilment of the

suffering of holy Israel33, and his own death meant that the eschatological time has

dawned. Like the Jews of antiquity, Jesus cried out in righteous complaint34,

demanding that justice be done in the face of great evil and darkness. But this

humiliating death was but a fundamental recognition that it was wrenchingly

humiliating, because when Jesus died, „paradoxically‟ evil was being defeated and the

rule of God was advancing.35 In particular with Matthew, the cosmic signs of the

earthquake36 and the appearance of dead saints in the city37 heralded in principle the

believer‟s own participation in a totally new epoch of existence and physical

resurrection, one that did away with the old misery and agony of the past world

(affirmed by the Resurrection). Therefore for Matthew, Christian life is sotereological

in nature and eschatological in temporality. The death-resurrection was the turning

point for the believer, because the turning of stone by the angel38 symbolised a turning

of the ages by God and the angel‟s sitting on the stone where Jesus‟ body lay meant

that death and evil had been conquered.39 Secondly, the Church waits for the time

when Jesus will come to judge, vindicate and justify them. This awaiting of the Last

Judgment and eternal life moulds temporal Christian existence, no matter how

30
Filson (1971) pg. 32
31
Moynihan ed. (2005) pg. 95
32
Matthew 12:28
33
Psalm 22:1 – 12
34
Psalm 22:1
35
Filson (1971) pg. 37
36
Matthew 27:51
37
Matthew 27:52 – 53
38
Matthew 28:2
39
Meier (1978) pg. 208

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difficult, as eschatological existence.40 Matthew hopes for a glorious coming of Christ

that fulfils the Christian meaning of life, although his eschatology is not fully realised,

opening up an indefinite future until the end of the age.41 Until then, the Matthean

soteriology is founded upon the eschatological hopes of Christians: „All our hopes

find their culmination in the one hope: thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth

as it is in heaven. The earth will become heaven.‟42 It is this possible future that Hick

grounds his hope in, a future that validates even the most unjust suffering currently

apparent on Earth.

Jesus did not know the exact arrival time of that future, nor could his disciples know

it43, but it is a decisive work of God in the apparently linear fabric of history. John the

Baptist announced its imminence44, and Jesus began his public ministry with the same

stirring proclamation.45 How exactly the Judgement takes place is also not known,

and only the exhortation of the community‟s preparation for that Judgement is

emphasised.46 Therefore the timing is uncertain while the reality is definite. Yet this

eschatological defence, for many Christians today as it was for Matthew, has not been

realised. More than two thousand years have passed. Great evil persists in the mortal

world, and the final, radical, Judgement of good and evil has not been realised. Like

the Old Testament47, New Testament eschatological theodicy promises this future

experience that confirms faith and hope in God‟s purpose. But it is not difficult to

maintain that Matthew‟s apocalyptic Kingdom alone is not adequate in answering

40
Meier (1978) pg. 38 – 39
41
Matthew 28:20
42
Moynihan ed. (2005) pg. 165
43
Matthew 24:36
44
Matthew 3:2
45
Matthew 4:17
46
Luz (1993) pg. 128
47
O‟Brien (2005)

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evil. The next step is to turn to the King himself, Jesus Christ, and how his life on

Earth brought those who suffered from evil under his protective wing.

Luke’s Jesus the King

Both Matthew and Luke, through Markan eschatology, write of Jesus‟s death as an

apocalyptic, end-time event succeeding Jesus‟s own apocalyptic warnings.48 But Luke

explicitly presupposes that God is always in supreme control, from the beginning to

the end.49 It is God who sends down the angels to Zechariah, and to Mary,

proclaiming the future King.50 Hence his Gospel narrates the long-awaited and

determined activity of God‟s historical, salvific purpose.51 God is the King, and

therefore the Lukan eschatology emphasises God‟s historical interaction with

humanity (climaxing in Jesus) as the King‟s challenge against evil. God‟s plan and

control of redemptive history is described under two aspects. The first aspect is the

redemptive rule of God himself, resting on the systematic execution of a divine plan,

and the second aspect is the content of this divine plan, which is glimpsed in Christ,

who is at the centre of human history.52

Writing in the context of the Roman Empire, where the Pax Romana was imposed

only after much bloodshed, suppression and injustice, Luke envisages Jesus as the

King who transforms this worldly order. As heir to the throne of David53, Jesus does

48
Matt 21-25; Lk 20-22
49
Danker (1976) pg. 5
50
Luke 1:11 – 38
51
Green (1995) pg. 22
52
Conzelmann (1960) pg. 149 – 150
53
Luke 1:33

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herald the Kingdom of God as Providence‟s work.54 He enters Jerusalem as the

King55, and presents the Kingdom to his disciples.56 But he is a totally different King

to Augustus Caesar, for he brings down the powerful and lifts up the lowly.57

Therefore, salvation for Luke is pre-eminently status reversal, and this includes not

only the raising up of lowly persons, but also the liberation of the people of Israel

from tyrannical Rome. This is the first form of „liberation theology‟ as God‟s option

for the poor, in the unity of the Luke/Acts narrative (Prior alludes to Luke 4:16 – 30

as Jesus‟s exemplary interest in the plight of the oppressed).58 Garret makes a worthy

point that the earthly powers are presented alongside Satan‟s own dominion, the

dominion of injustice, evil, dark magic and demonic powers in particular. The Lukan

Jesus is understood to have conquered Satan‟s claims of authority and his earthly

agents, who oppress and dominate.59 In a broader context, the Kingdom is here to

deconstruct worldly systems and barriers, inviting all, especially those who are

marginalised and excluded, to participate in this community.60 This is Jesus‟s

challenge to the earthly and demonic powers of oppression as the agent of God. His

miracles also entail not simply a physical healing, but a healing of the social isolation

and loneliness that the downtrodden have suffered.61 This twofold healing is evident

with the woman who suffered a haemorrhage62, the emphasis on Jesus‟s sorrow for

the mother whose son died63, and the Gerasene demoniac64, who are all primary

recipients of God‟s eschatological salvation. Such healings of Jesus along with the

54
Luke 4:43 and 9:2
55
Luke 19:38
56
Luke 22:17 – 18
57
Luke 1:52
58
Prior (1995) pg. 16
59
Garret (1989) pg. 108
60
Green (1995) pg. 94
61
Green (1995) pg. 96
62
Luke 8:43 – 48
63
Luke 7:11 – 17
64
Luke 8:26 – 39

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other miracles are seen as the overthrow of the demonic or diabolical. Not simply

that, but God‟s anticipated action is salvation65 from spiritual and political and social

alienation. The crucifixion of Jesus in Luke offers an insight to those who are

drowning in misery and suffering, of the exact nature of this salvation. Jesus reassures

the weeping and mourning women of their ultimate triumph as the meek and the

downtrodden, going as far as to call them „Daughters of Jerusalem‟, an affirmation of

Israel as their rightful home and himself as their ultimate King.66 He declares, even as

he is bearing the agony of the cross, that blessed are the barren women, the wombs

that never bore and the breasts that never nursed.67 Another powerful image is not a

violent overthrow of the Roman Empire by the Kingdom of God, but of the climax of

the inversion of status and values propagated by Jesus. 68 The master will sit his

faithful slaves at the table to eat, and he (the master) will serve them (the slaves). This

rights the wrongs of the world and transmutes evil into goodness. Compared to the

other theodicies, this is similar in the sense that the Lukan community shared in the

same political and social injustices as the Markan and Matthean churches. Christians

were a small, marginalized group living on the fringe, and they were under the rule of

the tyrannical Romans, who crucified their Lord. Subsequently God was not known

nor cared about by the powerful. Therefore it is not surprising that this affected the

timing of the Lukan eschatology. Whereas the Kingdom of God is a temporal present-

future reality imposed on a sinful generation in Matthew, Luke‟s Jesus emphasises

that salvation is already present.69 Also, the idea of the Kingdom appears as early as

in John the Baptist‟s preaching in Matthew 3:2, whereas for Luke this is impossible

65
Danker (1976) pg. 111
66
Luke 23:27 – 29
67
Luke 23:29
68
Luke 12:35 – 38
69
Luke 4:21, 19:9, 11:20, and 17:28

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because it is Jesus the King who preaches about his own prophetic fulfilments.70 A

crucial narrative is the exchange which occurs between the crucified criminals and

Jesus. The second criminal who defends Jesus against the accusations (of false

kingship and divinity) of the first71 is promised a future heaven with conviction by

Jesus: „I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.‟72

In the previous section I wrote that Matthew‟s eschatology is not fully realised,

opening up an indefinite future until the end of the age. When one observes that it was

evident in the 1st and 2nd Century C.E. that Jesus‟s return was not imminent,

Matthew‟s defence seems hollow. But in Luke‟s Gospel Jesus answers the criminal‟s

indefinite „when you come into your kingdom‟ with „today‟.73 The Kingdom is now, a

temporal certainty. The first criminal believes that Jesus is not the Christ if he cannot

save himself and them. But the criminal who defends Jesus replies that by accepting

crucifixion, Christ is showing his true majesty: he does not attempt to escape, like the

guilty, whereas the first criminal, who was guilty, wanted Christ to free them too.74

Guilt is on humanity, as guilt is upon the criminals, but Jesus suffers also, though he

is not a criminal and was not guilty. The banishment of evil, for the criminal who

defended Jesus, comes from the repentance of the lowliest state of being, leading into

the personal realisation of salvation that Jesus affirms. Luke‟s Jesus is a Christ of

hidden power: „Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass

70
Luke 16:16 and 18:31
71
Luke 23:40 – 42
72
Luke 23:43
73
Danker (1976) pg. 111
74
Luke 23:39

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away.‟75 God in this sense is not omnipotent, but he is in control, of both history and

the salvific process. Jesus defeats the evil powers in this way.

Luke‟s theodicy is the majestic control that Jesus exercises, particularly among the

rejected and isolated. Matthew writes more of the future. But Luke did not simply

collapse the eschatological hope into the present; the Kingdom has a future element

and a present one76, though the temporal location of the future element, like Matthew,

is uncertain: „It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own

authority.‟77 Luke‟s emphasis on the certainty but unpredictability of his eschatology

means that it is necessary to be alert, lest there be serious consequences.78 Yet, is this

theodicy restricted by its political context? It seems to be mostly an expansion on

Matthew‟s apocalyptic Kingdom theodicy with its emphasis on the temporal power of

the King. Even with this affirmation of God‟s continuing battle against evil in the

present, it does not seem powerful enough to defeat the forces of evil so prevalent in

our world. It is the ascension79 of Jesus in the epilogue that answers this, which entails

an important philosophy regarding the hidden power of God: he dispenses with

worldly political power and dispenses justice for all nations.

Expanding on this timeless vindication, there is one more aspect to the eschatological

theodicy: aside from Jesus‟s apocalyptic Kingdom and his kingly nature and

benefaction, his divine nature itself might be an answer to evil.

75
Luke 21:33
76
Green (1995) pg. 98
77
Acts 1:7
78
Luke 12:47
79
Luke 24:51

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John’s Eschatology of the Incarnation

From an eschatological perspective, there is a progression of the attempt to fulfil

messianic expectations in Mark and more strongly in Matthew, to a present

benefaction by Jesus in Luke. For „John‟, however, it was due to his community‟s

many experiences, religious, historical and psychological, that gave birth to the

worldview80 that would shape the eschatology, and hence the following theodicy, of

the Fourth Gospel. This is by far the most mystical theodicy of all: it is an eschatology

of presence81 on Earth. The writer of John‟s theodicy wrote of Jesus himself, as the

Incarnation, as the answer to evil.82 The prologue of John harkens back to Isaiah, who

in a vision saw God enthroned in his glory, but then received a task that he must carry

out in lowliness and concealed glory.83 Similarly, the eternal Word entered the mortal

fabric of a material world corrupted by sin and evil, assuming a body in the

Incarnation of Jesus. The objective of the Incarnation was to reveal the loving, self-

giving nature of God84, from the beginning of his ministry, to his crucifixion and

resurrection, all of which were part and parcel of Jesus‟s explicit belief in his own

God-given mission85, to bring the divine plan to fruition through the utter banishment

of evil.

80
Burge (2001)
81
Lee (2005)
82
John 3:19
83
Westermann (1998) pg.6
84
John 6:32
85
John writes of Jesus of being God (John 1), while at the same time sent by God to spend time in the
mortal world (like a Gnostic intermediary). There are many verses in John that point to both views as
valid. In regards to Jesus being sent „from above‟, or the Father, to the world, we have John 3:17; 34;
4:34; 5:36 – 38; 6: 38 – 39; 7:16 – 18; 12:44 – 50; 15:21 – 24.

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John‟s eschatology provides a slightly different theodicy: he narrates a battle between

the forces of God, light, and life, against the forces of darkness, death, sin, and evil.

Darkness, however, cannot overpower evil, for it could not overcome the pre-existent

Word86, much less defeat the light that shines in such darkness. 87 Craig Koester notes

that it is interpreted in three ways in John88: Darkness signifies „the powers that

oppose God‟, which are demonic in origin but manifest themselves in human actions,

particularly the rejection and crucifixion of Jesus. Secondly, darkness is symbolic of

the „lethal estrangement from God‟ resulting in death, both physical and spiritual, an

estrangement typified by various figures in the Gospel89 (Lazarus and Martha being

two of them). Finally, darkness refers to human „ignorance and unbelief‟ in the face

of revelation, a state that is not in itself culpable. The man born blind lives in darkness

because he literally cannot see Jesus; he is also ignorant of Jesus‟s identity and is

hence ignorant of his identity as the Christ.90 Knowledge is the key to salvation. Like

the Gnostics, this knowledge includes the divine disclosure of events before the

creation and a mystical awareness of the inscrutable Father through the elusive

awareness of the Son.91 Jesus makes the blind man see again and the man worships

him in return.92 Darkness is therefore an active agent, possessing power, so much

power in the temporal world that the ignorant authorities that persecute Jesus are

infected with it. Sin and evil‟s cause is the wilful wandering in the darkness of

ignorance about Jesus. To be within the realm of sin and evil is exemplified in the

86
John 1
87
John 1:5
88
Koester (2003) pg. 143 – 44
89
Lee (2005)
90
Lee (2005)
91
Edwards (2004) pg. 162
92
John 9:39 – 41. There is a textual problem in John 9:38 – 39, with some textual witnesses omitting it
(Brown: 1966 – 1970: The Gospel According to John, 2 vols. New York: Doubleday). Argument for
their inclusion is strong, however (Metzger: 1975: A Textual Commentary on the Greek New
Testament. London/New York: United Bible Societies), and taken in the context of the worship of
Jesus as the Christ, the text seems genuinely appropriate.

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refusal to believe in Jesus as the Word, as the Son of God. This leads to a lack of self-

knowledge, and a lack of knowledge about God. This also includes religious leaders

who claim to follow Jesus and abuse their power or exploit their flock.93 By contrast,

to know God is to share in a divine intimacy with the Word, and in this way eternal

life is attained. This life is characterised by a dispelling of darkness, banishment of

evil, and participation in eternity.94 This message is written into the narrative of John,

where the literary, metaphorical, and theological meanings of Jesus‟s statements and

deeds, although diverse, pointed to the sole fact of his Incarnation. 95 The conflict was

always in the favour of the Word, because although there is darkness, and hence,

ignorance, evil, and sin, the darkness has not understood the light; it remains unable to

understand such a light that shines forth from the men who believe in the Word.96 The

evangelist speaks eschatologically97: theodicy cannot explain why such evils occur,

but the eschatology reveals that God‟s purpose is loving and life-giving.98 Even Jesus

reminded his faithful that they would encounter trouble in the world. But he himself

had overcome it.99 So it only remains to fulfil1 prophecy100 so that God‟s fullness of

revelation can be completed. Another way in which evil is confronted is an almost

docetic manner, a complete contrast to Mark‟s suffering Jesus: In John, Jesus shows

no true signs of pain. Suffering does not touch him, not even at death.101 John‟s

docetic style presents a mystical theodicy, where Jesus is the Son and representative

of God, who is the source. God sends Jesus and raises him out of death, evil and

suffering, implying that all who believe in him, as „sons of God‟, can hope for the

93
Lee (2005)
94
Rensberger (2001)
95
O‟Day (2001)
96
John 1:5
97
John 9 and John 11
98
Lee (2005)
99
John 16:33
100
John 19:28
101
John 19:28

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same future. The narrative shows that the conflict is in favour of light and goodness,

because God defeated darkness from the beginning of Creation by banishing it on the

first day102 and that there was no suffering for Jesus, only his mission, which was to

redeem humanity. Judgement and salvation have already „occurred‟. For John, eternal

life starts now103, from the moment of accepting Christ.

The reason why the Johannine Jesus is the most otherworldly and transcendent Jesus

of the canonical Gospels is because John believes that the answer to evil is the

Incarnation. This Incarnation dispels the darkness and smites evil, and brings his light

to his faithful. In Johannine irony, sin and death, and Jesus‟s own death is transformed

into beauty, light, and truth. Therefore, darkness, sin, and death are everything that the

Johannine God stands against, but Jesus has already won this battle. In a rather

Gnostic manner of theodicy, Jesus answered the question of evil by bridging Heaven

and Earth, the Divine and human, the spiritual and the material. In doing so, he

essentially transformed life and death.104 Benedict XVI affirms this sense of

Johannine revelation, presence, and eschatology: „God has given us in Christ His Son,

Himself, His entire Word. He could not have given us more. In this sense revelation is

closed. But because this Word is very God and all the words point back to the Word,

precisely for this reason it is never only in the past, but always present and future and

always as the same time the anchor of our life in eternity as it is the opening to

eternity, the guarantee of the true life, which is stronger than death.‟ 105 Therefore

102
Genesis 1:3 – 8
103
Rensberger (2001)
104
John 11:25 – 26
105
Moynihan (2005) pg. 167

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while the Johannine defence of God comes close to the classical theodicies that

argued for God‟s omnipotence, it is not identical to them.

Conclusion

According to Matthew, the age of suffering‟s end106 is not long; in fact, it is coming

very soon.107 But for a modern day theodicy, this assurance is not enough, and

perhaps even hollow. The radical anticipation of the Kingdom must be tempered by

the affirmation of Jesus‟s suffering and promises as affirmed in Mark and Luke, and

God‟s bridging the dark chasm (of darkness, ignorance, sin and evil) between himself

and humanity as the Incarnation in John. This Incarnation, his Benefaction, and his

coming Kingdom are the religious answers to evil. Pope Benedict XVI identifies with

John Hick‟s hope: „We who have been baptized, as children of a world which is still

to come, in the liturgy of the Easter Vigil, catch a glimpse of that world and breathe

the atmosphere of that world, where God‟s justice will dwell forever.‟108 As with

Jewish apocalyptic belief, the just and righteous are condemned by worldly powers

and undergo terrible tribulation before being redeemed by God. Whether Jesus

heralds the Kingdom or fulfils his reign over the demonic powers, the different (yet

canonically similar) eschatological themes of Mark, Matthew, Luke and John are that

they are all situated in a temporal location beyond the present eon. Human history is

bound tightly within the framework of God‟s agenda, whereupon Jesus will usher in a

new era of peace and vanquished evil. With this mode of theodicy, Hick cannot

conclude immediately on the eschatology‟s worthiness. He can only look back in

106
Psalm 13:1
107
Filson (1971) pg. 35
108
Moynihan ed. (2005) pg. 126

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retrospect before deciding whether life‟s injustice, cruelty, and terror were worthy.

Until then, he awaits the herald of the eternal Kingdom, and in the temporal present,

enjoys the Benefaction of the Incarnation who triumphed over evil during his life on

Earth.

Christians should not, however, take this eschatology for granted; in actual fact, they

cannot be satisfied with a simple explanation of eschatology in the Gospels and hope

to be grounded in it indefinitely. The reason for this is that the Gospels‟ theodicy that

I have outlined is still restricted. The constraint of this eschatology-based theodicy is

its limit within the human history of this world. The magnitude of natural evil,

including the cosmic laws of entropy and the unlikely permanence of at least this

universe, have yet to be reconciled with the prospect of the body‟s resurrection and

eternal life as promised by the Gospels, at least for all future humanity. Furthermore,

the likely existence of other world-systems and universes other than our own and the

possible existence of other sentient beings remains an unknown (some may consider it

possibly irrelevant) factor for the future of Christian eschatology. But the

anthropocentric view of mankind as the sole recipient for deliverance from evil can be

troublesome for an eschatologically centred theodicy. Even John‟s Gospel might not

be able to maintain its position of the divine intermediary‟s sustenance of the vast

universe so easily (hence my emphasis of the futility of defending the omni-God

concept in the Introduction). It is the dilemma of historical soteriology that it is bound

within the framework of history and our Earth-world, unlike trans-historical religious

philosophies like Buddhism.109 A community‟s historical methodology can direct its

109
Chang (1971) xiv – xv.

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religious and eschatological thought, and in his book The Buddhist Teaching of

Totality, Garma C.C. Chang provides an extremely insightful analysis into the

different historical templates of the Judeo-Christian aesthetic and the Dharmic

(specifically Buddhist for him) view on time. Key differences are that Christian

history and eschatology are centred on planet Earth and is moving towards a final

destiny enacted by the Divinity, whereas Buddhism holds that human history has no

unique significance because there are countless universes with histories of countless

other sentient beings being enacted, as well as innumerable religious dramas

unfolding on different worlds. In short, Chang argues that there are two basic views

regarding history: either a God/Man/Earth-centred view, or one centred on the

premise of an infinite variety of universes and of sentient beings. 110 The philosopher

who utilises the former view must be aware of the potential restrictions it places on

the discipline of theodicy, in particular Gospel eschatology-based theodicies

(generally God/Man/Earth-centred writings), and develop counter-arguments to the

latter philosophical position accordingly. Any evil that may imply the world‟s

physical annihilation ironically threatens an apocalyptic salvific eschatological

theodicy. Furthermore, epoch-making changes in the world that cannot be attributed

to God (apparently apocalyptic wars like World War I and II most certainly did not

herald the advent of the Kingdom) also lead to complications in the theodicy,

especially with such emphasis on a divine interest in the world. It will depend on the

philosopher‟s own capabilities to formulate a plausible theodicy for the theistic

Divinity of this Earth, or to adopt another approach. Can Matthew, Luke and John

defend God against the charge of incompetence in the light of these philosophically

problematic contentions? Can they defend the apparent meaninglessness of a child

110
Ibid.

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who is brutally tortured and murdered? It is not in this paper‟s place to give a certain

answer. Either way, it is certain that this theodicy is no mean feat; no theodicy is easy.

The Gospels‟ eschatological theodicies are just one of those that may manage to be a

worthy defence of God in the face of evil.

- The University of Queensland

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