Theodicy in the World of the Bible.

• Author: Sasson Jack M.
• Position: Book review

Theodicy in the World of the Bible. Edited by ANTTI LAATO and JOHANNES C. DE MOOR. Leiden: BRILL, 2003. Pp. liv + 830. [euro]119.

Ascertaining the roots of evil (acts or intents) is at the heart of much theological speculation, the more intensely so when malevolence is deemed attributable to powers beyond the human sphere. These deliberations have likely occurred since time immemorial; but we encounter them rather later in human history when such thoughts are committed to writing. Among the earliest recorded evidence for these reflections are those from the ancient Near East, whether embedded in the ejaculations of an individual writing to another or in elaborate contemplations dedicated to the themes this speculation has generated. It is the business of modern scholars to identify, categorize, and analyze the range of issues raised in the documents, those unseen or undeciphered until relatively recently as well as those still spiritually significant for large segments of the human population. A marked difference between these two categories of written material is that the first was shaped by thinkers for whom the divine was represented by multiple godheads while for the second the divine was unique regionally, although eventually also universally. The complication in analyzing this record is that practically all those engaged in interpreting the material from the first category have been formed in cultures that share the confessional assumptions of the second.

Theodicy, the subject of this ambiguously titled large volume ("The World of the Bible" serves only partially as a temporal demarcation), was coined by Gottfried Leibniz ("Pangloss" for Voltaire) at the dawn of a deistic age, as he reflected on Paul's sharply stated conviction "... If our wickedness serves to show the justice of God, what shall we say? That God is unjust to inflict wrath on us?... (Rom. 3:5; RSV)." For Leibnitz, certain of the unique (albeit triune) God, there was yet need to justify the existence of moral and natural evil by examining the shape of evil, the nature of divine providence, and the application of divine justice. Soon afterwards, as a result of better acquaintance with the highly sophisticated theologies of polytheistic cultures from the Asian east, theodicy came to be treated as an existential problem, accentuating the theological dilemma created by an unjust punishment or an undeserved reward rather than exposing the moral predicament of a good God who...