Absolutes and Mysteries

I finished reading a book by C.S. Lewis called "The Problem of Pain" about a week ago. I love Lewis as a writer. What a gifted linguist. There is very little I agreed with in his book on suffering and evil but there was something in his writing that I could not get away from. Something beautiful. Something real. Something I could connect with.

Lewis portrays in his writing a since of urgency, a desire for christian virtue, a love for a God he was far from understanding. I believe that is what I connect with. I have seen his humanity and frailty very clearly displayed in the difference between "The Problem of Pain" (an intellectual and philosophical look at evil and suffering) and "A Grief Observed" (His journal during the time of his wife's death). The most important thing that I have learned from these two books as a whole is this: Regardless of your intellectual understanding of evil, the face of evil is more terrifying than the thought of it. A theology of evil built on nothing but absolutes (I do believe there to be some) without the ability to be mysterious will cause more devastation than it will provide comfort. All of those absolutes will eventually be torn asunder. God is mysterious. So is the way he works. We must allow room for mystery.

The christian and non-christian world views both have some serious issues in the way they view evil. First, in the non-christian world view, the idea of social darwinism will never be able to define evil. For instance, if goodness is subjective and if we compare ourselves to others instead of God then we may have a chance at seeming good. The moment we compare ourselves to the infinite goodness of God we see that we are evil. If atheism has no god ( a Good god of course) to use as a standard, the same way a christian uses God as their standard for righteousness, then nothing can be called evil. Evil then would simply be the result of evolution. Even a deist who believes God is no longer involved in his creation would have the same problem or would retreat to admitting God is evil because he does not care enough to be involved in his creation.

In the christian world view we run into those who would rather wrestle philosophically with evil instead of seeing how God deals with it in scripture. Some would rather strip God of his omnipotence than say that God would not stop evil. If God does not intervene in order to end evil is he still good? They end up having to sacrifice, in their own mind anyway, either God's goodness or his omnipotence. Neither one of these are supported by scripture, only human reason. The character of God is far above reason.

It seems to me that Lewis understood that there are absolute truths that lie within the problem of evil but for every truth you discover you will also uncover a mystery that, unless you learn to enjoy the mystery of God, will haunt your dreams. Let us remember that, regardless how difficult, we must adhere to scripture to find truth. As long as we do so I believe... well, Matt Langston said it best. "The truth will reveal itself." That is if it choses to do so.