"Evil & The Justice of God"

Having finished N.T. Wright’s “Evil & The Justice of God”, all I can say is: “Wow.” The entire book is extremely enlightening, captivating, enlivening. While a lot of the material is “nothing new”—in the sense that he’s written about it in even more depth elsewhere—he focuses on several things that help bring “the problem of evil” into focus, and these things are matters integral to the Christian faith.

I like how Wright doesn’t say “Here’s what evil is, here’s what evil isn’t,” etc. He acknowledges that there are various ways of looking at evil, categorical systems prominent in systematic theology, but he says that they don’t really take evil seriously enough. Aside from the definition of evil in theology, he looks at the definition of evil in politics, especially from a western perspective: the “us vs. them” ideology, seen most vibrantly in “capitalism vs. communism” or “democracy vs. dictatorship.” His words in the first chapter should be necessary reading for those Christians all in hoopla about the current political currents of Islam in America (he writes about 9/11 several times, acknowledging that the terrorists were, indeed, evil; but that the whole situation has brought into the cultural mind a framework of evil that embraces the faulty “us vs. them” mentality). Ultimately he says that any theological definition of evil must acknowledge that the Bible doesn’t say where evil came from; Genesis 1-11 is more of an analysis of evil, a diagnosis of the situation, that about its origins. And throughout the Old Testament, the question of evil, while addressed, isn’t solved. The paradoxes and struggling of the saints are evident throughout scriptures, not least in the Psalms. The fantastic ending of Job—often called the classic Old Testament theodicy—doesn’t really shed any light on the subject. So what does God do about evil? In the Old Testament we see him restraining it, containing it, not letting it have its full reign, and even using it sometimes to further his own purposes (sometimes God uses evil in such a way that he gets his own hands bloody, as we see in the Israelite conquering of Canaan). Nevertheless, there’s no solid theodicy in the Old Testament; what we find is that anything resembling a theodicy (with the exception of Job, which is widely misread) is focused upon God’s covenant with Israel: God will deal with evil through the covenant, though as to how, no one (at least in the Old Testament) really knows.

Which leads to what I think is the best chapter of the book: “Evil & The Crucified God.” Wright advances the Christus victor approach to the cross (originated with Gustaf Aulen, and a very interesting approach to what God did when Jesus was crucified): that on the cross, Jesus defeated the powers of evil in all its forms. We find in the Old Testament God restraining and containing evil; but on the cross, evil is given free reign, allowed to rise to its fullest. It thrusts itself against God and with all its might kills him. It is the ultimate act of evil. It seems like a loss for God, but then Jesus raises from the grave: the resurrection (at the least, and that’s an understatement) shows that when Jesus died, he defeated the powers of evil, often invoked as death and sin. Death—the ultimate, God-defacing, human-defacing, creation-defacing act of evil—is undone, showing that evil itself has failed. It burned itself out when it threw itself against Jesus. It exhausted its powers and came to a loss. This is the New Testament conviction seen in the gospels and in the epistles of St. Paul. The cross is God’s answer to evil.

But, of course, as Wright continues to say, things aren’t completely better. Yes, the victory over evil has been won. Evil has been defeated and dismantled and, in a sense, destroyed. Yet it still seems to flourish and even prosper. We feel evil’s affects every day, and sometimes the affects are so deep and wounding that we’re scarred for the rest of our days. Wright acknowledges this and says that the cross and resurrection is but the first step of God’s answer to evil. Not that the cross is thus no big deal, or unnecessary, or not that important—no, it is a cosmic victory, an apocalyptic turning-point in history. God’s new age, where evil is vanquished and exterminated forever, has been inaugurated; and on a future day, it will be fully consummated. Evil has been judged and on that day, the sentence will be carried out.

The question becomes, “So what do we do now?” In this “interim” period, in this “now but not yet” moment in history, what are Christians to do? The isolationist technique of holing up isn’t feasible, and nor is the apathetic position of saying, “Well, God’s going to sort everything out in the end, so let’s just keep to ourselves.” Wright talks a lot about justice—what it is, what it isn’t, etc.—and has a lot of interesting things (as an aside) to say about the current prison system in America. Christians, as servants of God and agents of Messiah and his kingdom, are to implement the victory over evil by pursuing justice. He also talks about beauty, art, creativity—various ways of advancing God’s kingdom. And then, in the final chapter, he talks about forgiveness. I put it in italics because this is one of the best chapters I’ve ever read in my life; everything Wright says about forgiveness is mind-blowing, intrinsically tied to the defeat and dismantling of evil, and I would recommend every Christian buy this book, no matter your views on Wright, and read this chapter on forgiveness. He talks about what it is, what it isn’t, what it means, all of that. And he puts on the table a perspective of forgiveness that takes forgiveness seriously. Anyone who says Wright disregards or discredits the atonement should be put to shame just by reading this chapter; as a believer in the atonement, I find this chapter on forgiveness—forgiveness granted by God and given man-to-man—to be illuminating on the entire subject.

A small book. A handful of chapters. Decently-sized print. And worth every penny. One of the best Wright books I’ve read thus far, hands-down.