In some respects, The Shack is the story of Mack's struggle with the problem of evil, or theodicy. He can't understand how a good God could have allowed his daughter to suffer in such a terrible way. He can't justify it. Ultimately, The Shack doesn't allow Mack or the reader to get caught in the trap of theodicy. Mack is continually told that although God is all powerful and all loving and that it is not God's intention for people to suffer, that evil still exists.
Having stepped into the world of this story along with Mack, was it difficult for you to swallow God's explanation that although evil is not His intention or doing, that it is allowed to exist?
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3 comments:
I came away, a few years ago, from C.S. Lewis' "The Problem of Pain" with the criticism that his approach (without pain we wouldn't recognize the absence of pain, and God couldn't show us his goodness) was a little too easy. However it is interesting to take this to the extreme. Would God's pure love and whole goodness make sense in the absolute absence of evil? Does "good" make sense without it's counterpoint "evil"? And as soon as you introduce any evil at all, who's to judge whether it's "a a little" evil or "alot.'
Good point. Is there a difference between a little evil and a lot of evil? And who is to judge? Certainly not us. And the God of The Shack would probably point out that all evil is about being out of relationship with him and is therefore equally problematic. Our theology often states similar things in terms of all sin being equal before God. Of course, this is easy to speak of in the abstract realm of theology, but difficult to swallow in the real world.
Your first point makes me think of The Fall. Adam and Eve didn't know evil before sin entered the world. They certainly experienced God's goodness beforehand, but how? What sense could they make of it? Certainly, they had a different take on the whole matter after they ate of the forbidden fruit. (I don't really know where I'm going with this thought...)
I don't think God makes a difference between a little evil or a lot. Christ told us if we had murder, lust, etc, in our heart, we had already committed whatever the sin that was in our heart.
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