Who Rules the World

Divine Providence and the Existence of Evil

Hans Schwarz

• Publisher: Fortress Press
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN:
  9781506469263
• eBook ISBN:
  9781506469270
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Theology

Over a career spanning more than fifty years, Hans Schwarz has grappled with nearly all of Christianity's major theological questions. In this latest volume, Schwarz tackles the perennial problem of evil. How is it possible to reconcile the manifest evil and pain in the world with the biblical promise of hope and redemption? Are we, in fact, "lonely wanderers in the immensity of the universe about whom nobody cares," or is there something above and beyond us in which we can trust?

To this perennial question Schwarz brings his signature blend of pastoral sensitivity and scholarly acumen. Informed by decades in the classroom, Schwarz offers a sweeping survey of views of the problem of evil, beginning with the world's major religious traditions before focusing on the major views across the broad span of Christian history.

The book aims to help readers interested in the problem of evil understand the broad sweep of human thought about the problem, and make informed assessments of the issue for themselves.

1 Good and Evil in the History of Religions

When we look around in the vast arena of the world religions, we find basically two approaches to the issue of theodicy, a dualistic one and a fatalistic one. The first one is essentially an apology of God, the gods, or the divine claiming in so many words that the divine cannot be the cause of negativity. The causes of evil must be sought somewhere else. In this dualistic approach, the godhead is excused of being the cause of evil, since there is a clash between the forces of good and evil. In the fatalistic view, both good and evil are contained in one supreme power. The godhead is then often considered so supreme and powerful that human beings have no choice but to accept whatever is meted out to them, implying to some extent that it is their fault if they find themselves in a precarious situation.

The Dualistic Approach

Plato

It might be strange that we start our survey of positions on theodicy with a philosopher. Yet Plato (427–347 BCE) is not only the “father” of Western philosophy but also a mighty influence on Christian theology. When we peruse the works of Plato, we will notice that in his philosophy, he wanted to elucidate what is true and then guide humans on the way to the good in private as well as public life. Life for him was perceived as the whole web of being, which, for him, also included the divine or the gods. Since in Greek mythology the gods were not always portrayed as spotless examples for humanity, Plato tackled in many of his writings the issue of theodicy.

Throughout his works, Plato defended the positive aspect of God and the gods by talking about divine guidance and providence. In his dialogue Timaeus, Plato explains,

God desired that all things should be good and nothing bad, so far as this was attainable. Wherefore also finding the whole visible sphere not at rest, but moving in an irregular and disorderly fashion, out of disorder he brought order, considering that this was in any way better than the other. [ . . . ] When he was framing the universe, he put intelligence in soul, and soul in body, that he might be the creator of a work which was by nature fairest and best. Wherefore, using the language of probability, we may say that the world became a living creature endowed with soul and intelligence by the providence of God.1

God brought harmony and order into the universe. To that effect, God also created reason and soul so that by God’s providence, the universe is a living creature and can conduct itself in a reasonable way.

Yet God is also considered to be the creator, as we read in Plato’s Laws: “God, as the old tradition declares, holding in his hand the beginning, middle, and end of all things that is, travels according to his nature in a straight line towards the accomplishment of his end” (Nom. 715–16). Plato explains, “Now God ought to be to us the measure of all things and not man” (Nom. 716). Since God is the supreme Lord, humans should follow God’s example and precepts. If we abandon that example, we end up in confusion and mischief. Therefore, we cannot blame God for evil. “For few are the goods of human life, and many are the evils, and the good is to be attributed to God alone; of the evils the causes are to be sought elsewhere, and not in God” (Rep. 379c). “But that God being good is the author of evil to any one is to be strenuously denied, and not to be said or sung or heard” (Rep. 380b). Therewith God is vindicated of all evil. God is neither the cause nor the executor of evil, since he is good. “The divine is beauty, wisdom, goodness, and the like” (Phaedr. 246d). This means that the divine or God or the gods are good. To that effect, we can trust God. We read in the Republic (381c), “Then it is impossible that God should ever be willing to change; being, as is supposed, the fairest and best that is conceivable, every God remains absolutely and forever in his own form.” Gods are not tricksters who appear at one time in this shape and mood and another time in another one. Since “God and the things of God are in every way perfect” (Rep. 381b), God is in every respect perfect. The gods “are just,” and just people are then friends to the gods (cf. Rep. 352a). For Plato, there is nothing wrong or bad in the gods.

His vindication of God as the author of bad or evil things then proceeds in the following way: Since God is good and no good things can be harmful, that which is not harmful can do no harm. That which can do no harm can do no evil and cannot be the cause of evil. “The good is not the cause of all things, but of the good only” (Rep. 379b). Since God is good, God cannot be the cause of everything, especially if it is not good. Some other causes must then be sought for that which is not good.

When people surmise that God created the world but then withdrew from it, Plato counters that they do not look at the whole picture but only judge things from their own standpoint. They should also consider life on this earth, the stars, the moon, and the seasons. “Since a soul or souls having every sort of excellence are the causes of all of them, those souls are Gods, whether they are living beings and reside in bodies, and in this way order the whole heaven, or whatever be the place and mode of their existence” (Nom. 899c). Plato assumes here that everything in the universe is ensouled and “full of gods” that enable the universe to exist and to move. All things are full of gods. Therefore, it is wrong to argue that gods exist but do not pay attention to human affairs. The gods “are perfectly good, and that they care of all things is most entirely natural to them” (Nom. 900c). Therefore, “The Gods care about the small as well as about the great” (Nom. 900c).

For Plato, evil is not a category in its own but something that later is called a privation of the good. Humans are responsible for moral evil. “God is never in any way unrighteous—he is perfect righteousness” (Theait. 176c). Yet Plato knows that injustice remains often unpunished in this life. He then assumes that once this life has ended, those who executed injustice will live “in the likeness of their own evil selves” (Theait. 177a). Whatever does not even out in this life will even out in the hereafter. When we ponder these thoughts of Plato, we might find here some affinity to the Judeo-Christian heritage. There is the creator who brought forth the world and imprinted on it his laws. Yet there is evil and imperfection that, however, cannot be attributed to this creator. Those who succumbed to evil will bear its consequences forever in life beyond this one. We might not be wrong calling these thoughts a philosophical theology. It is not surprising then that, according to our knowledge, Plato was the first person to use the term theology.2

Zoroastrianism

Roughly around the same time as Plato composed his works, there lived in northeastern Iran a priest and prophet by the name of Zarathustra, or Zoroaster, according to the Greek transcription. The dates for his life vary considerably from the second millennium to the sixth century BCE. Most likely, Zoroaster lived around 600 BCE. His teachings developed into Zoroastrianism, which was already an old religion when it was first recorded. From the sixth century BCE to the seventh century CE, it became the official religion of ancient Persia and its distant subdivisions. Zoroaster’s training for the priesthood began very early, and he became a priest probably around the age of fifteen, which was when, according to Old Iranian reckoning, a boy reached adulthood.3 As we gather from the Gathas (the poems attributed to Zarathustra), he gained knowledge from other teachers and personal experience on his travels when he left his parents at just twenty years old. By the age of thirty, he experienced a revelation when he saw a shining Being, who revealed himself as Vohu Manah (Good Thought) and taught him about Ahura Mazda (Wise Spirit), the uncreated creator. Zoroaster soon became aware of the existence of two primal spirits, Ahura Mazda and Angra Mainyu (Hostile Spirit), with opposing concepts of Asha (truth) and Druj (lie). Thus he decided to spend his life teaching people to seek the truth.4 He received further revelations and saw a vision of the seven Amesha Spenta, meaning the divine sparks or archangels of Ahura Mazda. Zoroaster’s teachings were collected in the Gathas and the Avesta.5 He taught about free will and opposed the use of the hallucinogenic haoma plant in rituals (Yasna 48:10), polytheism, overritualizing religious ceremonies, and animal sacrifices. He also objected to the oppressive class system in his home country.

Similar to Mohammed many centuries later, Zoroaster completely rejected the religious tradition of his geographic environment. At the center of his religious devotion was the god Ahura Mazda, or Ormuzd. This god was the creator of heaven and earth, without image, and the lawgiver of the whole cosmos. Loyalty to Ahura Mazda excluded the worship of any of the old Iranian gods. Yet Zoroaster did not advocate a strict monotheism, since according to his teachings, there existed an insurmountable opposition between almighty Ahura Mazda and Angra Mainyu, or Ahriman, the manifestation of everything evil. This cleavage resulted in an ethical and metaphysical dualism, “the strictest antithetical dualism known in the history of religion.”6 Zarathustra expresses this dualism in the following way: “I will tell forth the two Wills at the world’s beginnings, of whom the Bounteous one speaks thus to the Hostile one: ‘Neither our thoughts, nor our pronouncements, nor our intellects, nor our choices, nor our words, nor our deeds, nor our moralities, nor our souls, are in accord’” (Yasna 45:2).7

Once these spirits or “gods” made their initial ethical choice, they separated themselves and the world into a sphere of light and a sphere of darkness.8 The incompatibility of both gods is, for Zarathustra, the basis of his ethical demands. Though the ethical demands remain mostly in the realm of social ethics (the liberation of the suppressed peasants and herdsmen), the actual goal of ethical realization lies in the eschaton. Already here and now, the village will prosper through righteousness, and those who adhere to good thought and right actions “will be the Promoters of the regions” (Yasna 48:12). The continuous realization of the good requires a meaningful and active life involved in peaceful work. Characteristic for Zoroaster’s doctrine is a twofold outcome of history: an eternity of bliss and an eternity of woe allotted respectively to good and evil people in another life beyond the grave. After death, the soul of the deceased must cross the Chinvat Bridge, “the Arbiter’s Crossing” (Yasna 46:10), which stretches over hell, an abyss of molten metal and fire. For those good people, the bridge grows broader and broader for easier transit and subsequent ascent into heaven, where the pious soul will live in eternal joy. But for the wicked, the bridge will narrow itself to a razor’s edge, and they will fall off the bridge and will forever reside in hell, where there will be eternal torment and suffering. There is also some kind of intermediate state for those whose good and bad deeds are held in strict balance.

Zoroastrian religion also knows of a judgment and completion of the whole world: “At the last bend of creation [ . . . ] where Thou comest with Thy bounteous will mindful in dominion” (Yasna 43:5.6). Then the “sphere of lies” will collapse, and the final judgment will take place. The Mindful Lord judges the people wisely and accurately so that no one can deceive him. This judgment also results in a transformation of the world. The Saoshyans, or savior, will come and bring the present world to its end. The dead will be resurrected, and both the wicked and the good will have to pass through a flood of “molten metal” (Yasna 51:9). The righteous will pass without harm and enter the new world. The wicked will either be purified or burned, and the evil spirits will be burned. After this worldwide purification in the last days of the present crisis, Ahura Mazda’s sovereignty will be complete, and together with him, the good will enjoy a new heaven and a new earth. Not all ideas that we know from the Iranian religion go back to Zoroaster. Some are later developments of the Avesta, the sacred book of Zoroastrianism or Parsism, but most have their roots in his teachings. Zoroaster’s teaching about individual judgment, heaven and hell, the resurrection of the body, the Last Judgment, and life everlasting for the reunited soul and body, among other things, may have had a catalyti...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Preface
• Abbreviations
• Introduction
• 1: Good and Evil in the History of Religions
• 2: Evil in the Judeo-Christian Scriptures
• 3: The Early Church
• 4: Middle Ages and the Reformation Period
• 5: The Enlightenment
• 6: The Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries
• 7: The Present Situation
• 8: The God Who Cares
• 9: Under God’s Guidance
• Selected Bibliography
• Index of Subjects
• Index of Names
• Biblical References