The Puzzle of Evil

The Puzzle of Evil
Peter Vardy
Harper Collins
ISBN 0-00-627638-5

Why does the good God of Christian belief let evil exist?

That's the question this book sets out to answer. If God really is omnipotent, omniscient, and all loving, how is it possible that there is so much evil? Well that's the simple version of the question, Peter takes the first chapter to examine exactly what the question is really, and the understanding of God we need to make it a valid question. We then take a look at the beliefs of Augustine and Aquinas. In the first few hundred year of the church the understanding of who God is developed quickly, and the core ideas settled. These two church fathers played an important part in establishing our tradition, and their ideas rightly receive careful examination. Then there are a few chapters discussing the free will defence – God had to give us free will, so that we could love Him. Love cannot be 'programmed in' – a robot cannot love. It really isn't that simple though.. Then natural evil – disease and disasters are examined – what effect do they have on the view of why there is evil in the world – they can't be caused by humans – or can they? Finally, in the first half of the book the questions “Is it all worth it?” is examined.

The second half of the book concentrates on the type of world we live in, the type of creatures we are, the type of God we have, Job, the devil, and how the moral framework and the beliefs we have hold all these things together.

This is not an easy subject, the greatest minds in history have puzzled over it, and have not come to a straight forward conclusion, let alone one that satisfies many of us in today's world, with the holocaust, the killing fields, and the tsunami all still fresh in our corporate consciousness. There are others too – the abduction and molestation of small children, and suicide bombings to name just two.

If you have the time, and the space for a relatively short book (205 pages), to set the scene and outline the arguments, then this will prove a good investment. For me it required some serious thought, and the arguments are still challenging. No doubt they will be for you as well. Peter Vardy has made a good attempt to help us into this difficult subject.