Is God Dead? The Challenge of Gratuitous Evil

Over this miniseries of recent articles, we have gleaned several notions from the biblical text in an attempt to ascertain what God has to say in answer to the question, “Why does God allow evil and suffering to exist in the world?” From that exposition, we have identified evil and suffering as punishment for sin, as a consequence of other people’s sin, as a consequence of fallen angelic free will, and for a greater good that could not otherwise be obtained. Sure enough, the Bible gives multiple examples of each of these reasons why God may allow evil to exist in the world. There remains, however, a stubborn category that is perhaps one of the most vicious forms of evil and suffering that can be experienced: the notion of gratuitous evil (evil that seems to defy any reason at all). Often, this form of evil and suffering involves the suffering of the truly innocent: the suffering of children. These are heart-wrenching cases of suffering that seem to have absolutely no explanation and defy our understanding.