Jun 12
Biblical answer(s) to theodicy? - hmm
Jim West has what seems to me a rather odd Biblical Answer(s) to the Question of Theodicy post. Perhaps he has more to come, though his post implies its own completeness.
Apart from the fact that I would adduce a rather wider range of OT texts than he does, I feel I have to take issue with this comment:
In Christian tradition the question is answered at ‘the last judgment’ where the good are saved and the wicked are punished (sort of an extension into eternity of the solution provided in time by Psalm 73). See in particular the book of Revelation. (His emphasis)
Missing entirely, but surely a mildly important theme in the New Testament, to say nothing of Christian tradition, is the cross of Christ. As Paul says:
[Jesus] whom God put forward as a sacrifice of atonement by his blood, effective through faith. He did this to show his righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over the sins previously committed; it was to prove at the present time that he himself is righteous and that he justifies the one who has faith in Jesus. (Romans 3:25-26 NRSV – my emphasis)
The apparent lack of divine judgement of evil deeds and people, and the apparently endlessly delayed divine vindication of the righteous, receive a non-philosophical and enfleshed answer. The most complete and stimulating (though flawed) modern presentation of this theologia crucis as theodicy is Moltmann’s The Crucified God which is not necessarily everyone’s cup of tea. But it can hardly be denied that Paul appeals to the cross here not only as atonement but also as theodicy. By it God proves that his is righteous, something which daily circumstances always call into question.
Then, of course, West’s over-speedy leap to last judgement receives a divine question mark, and the book of Revelation with its complex interplay between lion and lamb can be given the due weight of its ambiguity.
June 12th, 2007 at 11:33 pm
No, that’s it I’m afraid. I wasn’t intending a dissertation (after all, more trees have been killed in attempts to solve the problem than we can imagine) but to offer a very brief hint at possible solutions.
The cross, of course, is one answer. But then again how one man’s death makes all the evils of the world ok makes necessary a whole new range of questions doesn’t it?