Since I am a student of the Bible, I study its texts for clues. The Biblical texts provide a variety of responses to the question of the justice of God. These responses work and do not work. By “work” I mean that these explanations make sense to our experience. Of course, this statement immediately raises the question, does it matter if it makes sense to our senses? But, let’s examine the responses anyway. By the way, a new book just out from Fortress Press by Mark S. M. Scott, Pathways in Theodicy, does a nice job of covering the varying theodicies (theodicy=the justice of God, justifying God in the face of suffering and evil) including their strengths and weaknesses.
Free will defense: The Biblical stories give us the impression that human beings were created by God with the freedom to make moral choices, to obey or disobey the commandments of God. Not only do people have this freedom, but they use it to do what they want to do and what they think is right. If they do what is wrong, that is certainly not God’s fault. When they do what is wrong, humans are the responsible party since they have free will. Parts of this response make some sense to our modern ears. Each and every day we see people make choices and by the choices they make they decide what their lives will be about. If an automobile driver has been drinking too much, crashes his vehicle into another car, killing a number of people, we think this is tragic but we certainly would not blame God. We understand that the man driving drunk is responsible. He had free will and chose to drink and drive. On the other hand, the young student at the beginning of this essay, who concluded that his life was not worth living also made a choice. But was it a free choice? Was he completely free or in some way mentally ill? Given his tortured state of mind, wasn’t God morally obligated to interfere despite God’s commitment to free will? Another problematic example: A mother is walking with her seven year old child on the street. She has brought up the child to be independent and responsible. She believes that every child has free will. As they are walking on the street one day, some boys are playing ball and the child sees the ball fall into the street. Instinctively, the child darts into the street to retrieve the ball. The mother quickly notices that the child is about to be hit by a passing car. What should she do? Should she say, I see that my child is about to be hit by that car but I believe in free and responsible will , so I cannot interfere? Or does she run into the street and save her child? Most of us know what she should do. Free will is fine but is it a legitimate reason that should prevent God from acting in the world? To my mind, limited and self serving as it is, God is morally obligated to act on behalf of those incapable of acting on their own. The free will defense of God works and does not work.
Retribution: The Biblical text, particularly in the Book of Deuteronomy declares that those that follow the commandments of God will prosper and those who do not obey God’s laws will be cursed. This response or explanation of the way God works in the world seems to be true. You shall reap what you sow. What goes around comes around. Indeed it seems today to be true that many who do wrong are found out and visited by punishment in all sorts of forms. And those who do right succeed in life. This response seems to work. But, it is not always so. And the Biblical text in the Book of Job argues with this retribution explanation. Job is an innocent man who is made to suffer terrible calamities. He protests, questions and accuses his God of wrongdoing. Job is eventually told by that God that he is right to question and accuse and his religious friends are wrong to defend their notion of retribution. The fact is: there are many in the world who suffer evil who have not done anything to merit the pain and suffering they are forced to undergo. In point of fact there are many innocent victims throughout history that bear witness to the inadequacy of the retribution response. Retribution works and it does not work.
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