Why Does God Permit Evil?

The problem of evil is one which has proven itself a stumbling block to the faith of many Christians in both ancient and contemporary times. One cannot help, in looking out upon the various ills that continually beset humanity, but to question whether the Christian God is in fact “good” at all, at least in the moral sense of the word. According to its common usage, goodness implies the absence of anything that we perceive to be an “evil” in relation to ourselves. It is difficult for us, in view of this understanding, to envision a good God Who nevertheless permits us to undergo suffering, experience grief, and endure every kind of misfortune and injustice.

For many people, such a God could never in fact be good. At best, He could only be indifferent to the plight of humanity, abandoning us to the cruel circumstances of our earthly life. At worst, He is a sadistic God, Who created a world fraught with injustice as a mode of divine entertainment. In believing the former, one becomes a deist. In believing the latter, a Christian succumbed to despair.

What both of these poor souls fail to recognize is that the problem of evil is far more complex, for its roots touch upon the inviolability of man’s free will as well as the cosmic drama of creation, sin, and redemption. The solution to such a problem is ultimately bound up within a proper understanding of goodness as possessed by God, for surely God’s goodness cannot revolve entirely around us. It is this understanding to which we must now turn our attention.

God’s Goodness

The angelic Doctor, St. Thomas Aquinas explains that the goodness of God, in of itself, has very little to do with whether He protects humanity from tragedy or not. To the question of whether God is good, Aquinas answers that, “A thing is good according to its desirableness … For the very thing which is desirable in it is the participation of its likeness … All things, desiring their own perfection, desire God Himself, inasmuch, as the perfections of all things are so many similitudes of the divine being.”[1]

In other words, what makes something good is the fact that is it desirable, and a thing is desirable insofar as it is the perfection of the thing which desires it. God is the supreme perfection of man, for it is in God’s image that man is made. Thus, God is the ultimate good for man insofar as God is the most desirable to him.

This differs somewhat from our contemporary understanding of goodness in the moral sense; that is, of right and wrong. When Aquinas uses the terms “good” and “evil” in a discussion about God, he means them not in a moral sense but in a philosophical one. From this philosophical sense, we see that it is impossible for God to commit evil, for evil is a privation of desirability. The supremely desirable Being is by nature incapable of producing something undesirable. The existence of evil therefore cannot be attributed to God.

Some may argue at this point that not every man desires God, therefore God is not universally desirable or good, but rather good for some and not for others. In response to this argument, Aquinas clarifies that, “A relation of God to creatures, is not a reality in God, but in the creature; for it is in God in our idea only: as, what is knowable is so called with relation to knowledge, not that it depends on knowledge, but because knowledge depends on it.”[2]

Thus, the goodness of God does not depend upon man’s receptivity to it, for there are some men who, though having access to God’s goodness, choose to deprive themselves of it. This deprivation exists in the man and not in God.

Furthermore, to be supremely desirable is an attribute which resides in God alone and cannot be found in any created thing. Thus, to be essentially good belongs to God alone, as Aquinas asserts when he writes that, “The goodness of a creature is not its very essence, but something superadded; it is either its existence, or some added perfection, or the order to its end. Still, the goodness itself thus added is good, just as it is being.”[3]

Seeing as a thing is good or desirable insofar as it exists, it is clear that the goodness of man is a real, existing thing. Man’s goodness however, is added to him insofar as he achieves his own perfection which is his likeness to the supremely desirable Being.

Understanding all of this, we are now able to turn our attention to man’s exercise of free will in relation to the problem of evil.

Man’s Freedom

God goodness, to reiterate, is not dependent upon man’s correspondence with it, but resides essentially within God Himself. This goodness is not directly oriented toward the preservation of man from suffering or catastrophe, but consists in God’s supreme desirability.

The Book of Genesis recounts man’s first exercise of free will in a manner not consistent with the plan of God, “So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.”[4]

This singular act of defiance ushered in the great cosmic drama that would eventually take shape as the narrative of salvation history. From this moment until the end of time, man would be inclined to exercise his free will in opposition to the plan of God, thereby thrusting the problem of evil upon the world, together with its antecedent consequences of sin, suffering, tragedy, injustice, and death. The existence of every evil therefore, whether natural or moral, can be attributed to this first introduction of evil into human history as recorded in Genesis.

In light of this introduction, it becomes clear that the existence of moral evil results from man’s misuse of his free will and not from God, for God does not will that man should enact evil upon his fellow man, but merely permits such enactment in accordance with man’s inviolable freedom.

To such a point, many will argue that a truly good God would not create in humanity the capacity to bring evil upon himself or his fellow man; believing that God should rather protect his children from inflicting damage upon themselves by such means. For this to be so, in a fallen world afflicted by the sting of Original Sin, it would be necessary for God to diminish or altogether extinguish man’s free will. Most Christian philosophers agree however, that for God to do such a thing would result in the degradation of the human person to the extent that he is no longer capable of determining his own temporal and eternal destiny. In a sense therefore, as man is rendered incapable of choosing evil, he is conversely incapable of choosing good. By striping man of the ability to choose moral evil, man’s relationship with God becomes one of mere servitude, and loses its original purpose and significance.

From this reality ultimately proceeds the question of divine providence and how it interrelates with man’s free will. To what extent is man’s freedom of choice, and consequent salvation or damnation, truly his own and not ultimately determined by the predestination of God? To what degree is evil, moral or natural, directed and controlled by divine providence?

In answer to this question, Aquinas writes that, “All things are subject to divine providence, not only in general, but even in their own individual selves. For since every agent acts for an end … all things that exist in whatever manner are necessarily directed by God toward some end.”[5

Are we to say then, that evil is also directed by God toward some end? Yes, insofar as that end pertains to some good which is itself greater than the sum of the evil which came before it. Within the context of the individual, it seems illogical to presume that a great evil inflicted upon a man could possibly serve some greater good in the future, since that good future in many cases never manifests itself. In the context of salvation history however, the existence of moral evil suddenly takes on a broader significance, which Aquinas brilliantly explains when he writes that, “if all evil were prevented, much good would be absent from the universe. A lion would cease to live, if there were no slaying of animals; and there would be no patience of martyrs if there were no tyrannical persecution.”[6]

To some, this may appear as a clever yet ineffective way of dodging the question, for is it not absurd to believe that the slaughter of innocent Christians is somehow justified by the greater good of their witness to Christ? Perhaps upon our initial reading, yes, but a deeper reflection reveals precisely the opposite, for Christian philosophers agree that the spiritual good is inherently greater than the material good. It is better therefore, that the good wrought by the witness of the martyrs be upheld before the world than for the martyrs to be spared.

Such an analysis may be easily swept aside as being excessively cold and logical, failing to address the deep emotional impact that such a tragedy inevitably carries. Indeed, the entire problem of evil is predominately bound up within man’s emotional instability, arising from such traumatic events. It is the consolation of his feelings that man seeks in questioning whether a good God can permit evil to afflict those He loves. Emotion however, cannot be appealed to with a rational argument, for to do so would prove largely ineffective and potentially disastrous for a person immediately experiencing such grief. The only proper response to an emotional trauma is to offer emotional comfort, and it is a response which is fundamentally beyond the scope of this paper, for the purpose of this paper is not to remove the sting of evil but merely to explain how a good God can and does allow evil to exist in His universe.

In response to our initial question therefore, of the degree to which evil and its consequences are directed by divine providence, it is necessary to address the broad scope of natural evil in relation to the predestination of the soul.

Man’s Predestination

In a vain effort to account to for the problem of moral evil and its consequent damnation of the soul, some philosophers such as John Calvin have proposed the idea that providence predestines each individual soul either to good or to evil. Effectively, this idea stripes man of his free will entirely, rendering him as little more than a puppet of divine providence on the grand stage of salvation history. Ultimately, this idea fails to account for the existence of evil, as it merely portrays God as cruel and sadistic, arbitrarily deciding which men are saved and which are damned.

A quick glance at Aquinas is all we need to extricate ourselves from this Calvinist overemphasis on the role of divine providence. Accordingly, Aquinas writes that, “Since a rational creature has, through its free will, control over its actions, as was said above, it is subject to divine providence in an especial manner, so that something is imputed to it as a fault, or as a merit; and there is given it accordingly something by way of punishment or reward.”[7]

The role of providence is here upheld in context of man’s free will, clarifying that man’s actions are ultimately under the direction of providence but not under its immediate control. Man is thereby enabled to choose good or evil for himself while remaining within the eternal plan and providence of God, to Whom man’s free actions are known from all eternity.

Possessing this proper understanding of man’s freedom in relation providence, it would now be helpful to turn our attention toward the greater cosmic significance of natural evil within the providence of God.

The Greater Good

Perhaps no book of the Old Testament better illustrates the existence and operation of both moral and natural evil in the life of a good person than the Book of Job. Presenting the story of a pious, God-fearing man whom God strikes with various ills as a test of his faith, the Book of Job provides us with an accurate look into the perceptions of nearly every soul afflicted with great suffering in spite of being a faithful servant of God. Accordingly, the book records that Job was, “blameless and upright, one who feared God, and turned away from evil.”[8]

Many people immediately assume that Job enjoyed some sort of supernatural protection from evil, owing to his righteousness before God. Indeed, he did, but it was due to this righteousness that God allowed satan to strip away all that Job possessed, including his health, as a test of his faith. Specifically, the book records that his oxen, sheep, camels, and children were all killed in a single day, before he himself was afflicted with gruesome sores from head to toe. The goal of satan was to make Job curse God for allowing the greatest evil to befall one so blameless. Such a story should immediately resonate with us even today, as we tend to ask ourselves the same questions as Job in the midst of our own sufferings.

While Job never explicitly curses God, despite being goaded to do so by his own wife, he does complain bitterly against God in a manifestation of pride. Specifically, the type of pride which makes Job perceive himself as entitled to God’s blessing and protection in return for his righteousness. No sooner does Job imply this than God spends two whole chapters railing against him in an effort to break his pride, saying, “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding. Who determined its measurements—surely you know!”[9]

Appealing to sarcasm, God reminds Job that every good he has been given is a free gift which he did not earn and to which he bore no entitlement. Stubborn, emotional Job takes some time to fully comprehend this reality, and it is not until he finally does that God restores his former blessings and even doubles them, so that he had twice as many animals and children, and even lived twice as long as the average person.

What this masterfully poetic story is intended to convey is not only the solution to the problem of evil, but perhaps the only effective emotional argument that can be offered to a person questing the goodness of God in the midst of great evil.

This solution may be summarized very simply as follows: that God permits moral and natural evil only as a means of drawing some greater good out of it. This good may not be immediately perceived by the person experiencing the evil, but it becomes perceivable in view of the greater, cosmic drama of salvation history. To one experiencing a great trial or grief, such an argument may appear weak and ineffective, only because it fails to correct the evil which the person is experiencing. Ultimately, what most people ask when they raise the problem of evil is not whether evil is justified in some larger context, but why God doesn’t simply remove the evil as a favor to them personally. To such a question, even the greatest of Christian philosophers can only repeat the words of Job, “the Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.”[10]

It is worth recounting here how Job’s fortune and health were restored to him, in twice their original proportion, only upon Job’s repentance and offering of prayers for his three, ignorant friends. Specifically, the book describes how, “the Lord restored the fortunes of Job, when he had prayed for his friends; and the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before … And the Lord blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning.”[11]

It is strange that God would require the repentance of a righteous man whom He himself permitted to become destitute in the first place. To some, this might seem like the act of a God Who is indeed cruel and sadistic, but a deeper reflection reveals precisely the opposite.

In the beginning, satan boasts that he can break Job’s holiness if only God removes His protecting hand from Job’s path. God accepts this challenge in order to prove a point, not of superiority, but of love, for it is through Job’s trial of misery and pain, in which he complains bitterly against the providence of God, that Job is ultimately humbled and led into a far greater degree of holiness than he had ever previously achieved. In a sense therefore, while satan was correct in being able to break Job’s initial holiness, God triumphed nevertheless in doubling Job’s holiness by means of the suffering and privation that he experienced. It was through his experience of evil that Job was given the grace to perceive himself for what he truly was; namely, less righteous than he initially thought. Thus, the entire Book of Job is essentially a commentary on the problem of evil and how God is so good that He can bring good even out of something which is not good.

Divine Favor

Even so, this leaves us still with the question of why divine providence appears to favor some more than others. For indeed, it seems that God permits greater evil to befall one man and less to befall another. If, as Christian philosophers assert, God is perfectly just, how are we to account for this?

Aquinas again provides us with some insight into this complex question when he writes that, “When it is said that God left man to himself, this does not mean that man is exempt from divine providence; but merely that he has not a prefixed operating force determined to the one effect.”[12]

In others words, when God permits evil to befall humanity, it is not because He has removed His protecting hand altogether, but simply that man’s destiny is no longer immediately oriented toward the goal for which man was originally intended. This fact alludes to our earlier discussion on the importance of man’s free will in relation to divine providence, in that man is completely free, for the sake of his dignity, to choose a path for himself which strays from the good for which God intended him.

Continuing, Aquinas further clarifies that, “God, however, extends His providence over the just in a certain more excellent way than over the wicked; inasmuch as He prevents anything happening which would impede their final salvation.”[13]

From these words alone, it is becomes clear that God does indeed favor certain individuals more than others with regard to His providential protection and distribution of divine grace. However, as these words also clarify, God distributes grace and protection according to man’s correspondence with His will.

This perhaps enables us to more clearly understand why some men are privileged to be born into the holy Catholic Faith in a prosperous nation whereas some are born as poor, starving savages in the backwoods of some African village. It is not based on mere chance, nor can it be the arbitrary decision of an indifferent God, but is rather the providential working of a loving God which says that this particular man has the greatest chance of salvation if he is born into a wealthy, Catholic family whereas this other man’s salvation is best suited for a poor, short life away from the contemporary temptations of modern society. Aquinas describes this philosophically when he writes that, “for the completion of the universe there are required different grades of being; some of which hold a high and some a low place in the universe. That this multiformity of grades may be preserved in things, God allows some evils, lest many good things should never happen, as was said above.”[14]

Yet if this were so, some will argue, then how are we to account for the damnation of souls at all? If every man is born with precisely those goods which will best enable him to attain salvation, then how can it be that so many men reject those goods in favor of something less?

This question untimely proceeds from our previous discussion of man’s freedom to choose his own destiny in relation to his fallen nature due to Original Sin. Some men will indeed correspond to the grace of salvation which God extends to them, but many will also reject it, wishing instead to determine the course of their own lives, often at the expense of others’ good or happiness.

The providential favor of God corresponds therefore to man’s receptivity to His will and grace, as well as to those cumulative and mysterious factors which coalesce to form each man’s particular circumstances in which he is most likely to avoid the fires of hell. This favor does not prevent man from choosing a path contrary to that which God has marked out for him, but nevertheless manifests God’s wisdom in placing the pieces of the puzzle in the precise place they ought to be for the bigger picture of salvation history to complete itself.

Conclusion

This is fundamentally the reason that God permits great evil to befall good people; simply that good people will endure evil for the sake of a greater good. Wicked people will bear nothing and therefore will not bring any good out of the evil they receive. Thus, God allows the good man to be afflicted with greater evil in many cases than the wicked man.

When viewed through the lens of salvation history, the suffering and injustice of one man, woman, or even child, while never acceptable, can result in a greater good being drawn from it. While we may never fully understand the complexities of this reality, it suffices that we unite ourselves with our Crucified Savior in the midst of our own sufferings and various evils which befall us.

Rather than bemoaning our situation like Job[15], believing ourselves to be entitled to God’s goodness and protection simply because we are righteous, we must recognize our utter dependence upon God’s divine providence for whatever we possess, be it great or small. Since every good that we possess has its ultimate origin in God, it is God Who retains the full and complete right to dispense or remove that good in view of the larger context of our own salvation and that of the world in which we live.

What is needed in times of great evil and suffering is not that we should understand God’s working or complain against it, but rather that we should trust completely in His providence never to permit any evil in our lives that would impede our ultimate salvation and eternal happiness in Heaven. Indeed, whenever evil befalls us, it is not somehow a sign of God’s abandonment or disfavor, but as we have discussed, may in fact be an indication of the great sanctity to which God wishes to raise the soul.

May we all be given the grace to stand fast in the midst of our trails, however great, that we too may be fashioned into such great servants of the Lord as Job, and so that we too may learn to emulate and radiate the goodness of Christ, Who freely endured the worst imaginable evils for the greater good of our redemption and salvation.

[1] St. Thomas Aquinas, Philosophy of God Course Reader, ed. Fr. Younan, 212-213

[2] Ibid, 214

[3] Ibid, 216

[4] Genesis 3:6

[5] St. Thomas Aquinas, Philosophy of God Course Reader, ed. Fr. Younan, 404-405

[6] Ibid, 406

[7] Ibid, 407-408

[8] Job 1:1

[9] Job 38:4-5

[10] Job 1:21

[11] Job 42:10-12

[12] St. Thomas Aquinas, Philosophy of God Course Reader, ed. Fr. Younan, 407