How Two Traditions Address Evil Without Compromising Divine Omnipotence
Introduction
Both Christianity and Judaism (particularly through Midrashic tradition) wrestle with the problem of evil while maintaining God’s omnipotence and goodness. However, they arrive at significantly different frameworks, shaped by their distinct theological commitments and narrative emphases.
Core Jewish (Midrashic) Framework: Evil as Structural Possibility
Key Principles
Divine Simplicity and Transcendence: God remains radically transcendent and wholly other. There is no internal drama or division within the divine nature.
Evil as Privation: Following thinkers like Maimonides (influenced by both Jewish tradition and Neoplatonism), evil is not a created substance but an absence of good—like darkness is absence of light or cold is absence of heat.
The Yetzer Hara Framework: The inclination toward evil is not evil itself but a necessary drive that can be misdirected. It’s the impulse for self-preservation, ambition, desire—morally neutral forces that require proper channeling.
Process of Becoming: Humanity is created incomplete, meant to develop through navigating tensions. The goal is integration of opposites, not elimination of one pole.
This-Worldly Focus: The primary arena for addressing evil is in this life, through ethical action (mitzvot), study (Torah), and acts of loving-kindness (gemilut chasadim). While Judaism has concepts of afterlife, they’re less central to theodicy.
Communal Responsibility: The emphasis is often on collective rather than purely individual theodicy. Israel’s covenant relationship with God plays out through history, with suffering sometimes understood in national/covenantal terms.
Strengths of This Approach
- Maintains divine unity without internal conflict
- Preserves human dignity through genuine freedom
- Focuses on practical response to evil rather than speculative explanation
- Avoids creating a cosmic scapegoat (Satan as independent evil force)
- Evil doesn’t require metaphysical explanation beyond being possibility inherent in freedom
Limitations and Tensions
- Can seem coldly philosophical when facing individual suffering
- “Evil as privation” doesn’t always resonate with victims experiencing evil as very real and positive force
- Historical suffering of Jewish people creates acute theodicy problems (particularly post-Holocaust)
- Less developed narrative of cosmic redemption/resolution
Core Christian Framework: Evil, Fall, and Redemption
Key Principles
The Fall as Cosmic Event: Adam’s sin is not just individual moral failure but a catastrophic cosmic event that fundamentally corrupts all creation. Romans 5:12 – “sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin.”
Original Sin: Human nature itself is damaged/corrupted by the Fall. We inherit not just mortality but a sinful nature (Augustine’s doctrine). This is foreign to Jewish thought, where each person is born morally neutral.
Satan as Personal Adversary: While Satan appears in Jewish scripture (Job, Chronicles), Christianity develops him into a far more prominent cosmic adversary—a fallen angel leading rebellion against God. This creates a cosmic drama absent in Jewish theology.
Christological Solution: The incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection of Christ is the divine answer to evil. God doesn’t just permit suffering but enters into it, experiencing it from within.
Eschatological Resolution: Evil will be definitively defeated at the eschaton (end times). History is moving toward a final victory where “God will wipe away every tear” (Revelation 21:4). This provides a narrative arc to theodicy.
Substitutionary Atonement: Christ’s death satisfies divine justice, reconciling the tension between God’s mercy and justice. This addresses how a just God can forgive sin without compromising holiness.
Grace Over Works: Salvation comes through grace, not human effort to integrate tensions or perform mitzvot. This shifts the locus of response to evil from human striving to divine gift.
Major Christian Theodicy Models
Augustinian Theodicy:
- Evil entered through free will of angels and humans
- Original sin corrupts all subsequent humanity
- God’s grace saves the elect; others receive just punishment
- Emphasizes God’s justice and sovereignty
- Problem: Why did God create beings He knew would fall? Why punish all humanity for Adam’s sin?
Irenaean Theodicy (developed by John Hick):
- World as “soul-making” environment
- Humans created immature, meant to grow toward God’s likeness
- Suffering is pedagogical, developing virtues
- More optimistic about universal salvation
- Problem: Excessive suffering seems disproportionate to growth; what about those who die young?
Free Will Defense (Alvin Plantinga):
- Genuine free will requires possibility of evil
- A world with free creatures who sometimes choose good is more valuable than robots programmed for good
- God could not create free creatures guaranteed never to sin (logical impossibility)
- Problem: Doesn’t address natural evil (earthquakes, diseases)
Greater Good Defense:
- Some goods (courage, compassion, forgiveness) logically require evil’s existence
- The universe with these higher goods is more valuable than one without them
- Problem: Seems to make God dependent on evil for achieving goods
Uniquely Christian Elements
God Suffers: The crucifixion means God is not distant from suffering but enters into it. Jesus’ cry “My God, why have you forsaken me?” shows God experiencing abandonment and anguish. This is radically different from classical theism’s impassible God.
Redemptive Suffering: Suffering can be united with Christ’s suffering and become redemptive. Paul writes of “filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions” (Colossians 1:24). Suffering gains cosmic significance.
Already/Not Yet: Christians live in tension between Christ’s victory over evil (already accomplished at the cross) and its full manifestation (not yet realized until the second coming). This provides framework for current suffering.
Satan’s Defeat: Christ’s resurrection is victory over death and Satan. Evil is a defeated enemy, though still active until final judgment. This narrative gives meaning to ongoing struggle.
Strengths of This Approach
- Provides emotionally compelling narrative of God’s solidarity with sufferers
- Offers cosmic scope—evil has cosmic origin and cosmic resolution
- Redemptive suffering gives meaning to pain
- Eschatological hope provides future perspective beyond current anguish
- Satan as adversary externalizes evil, making it something to fight rather than just navigate
Limitations and Tensions
- Original sin doctrine raises justice questions (why punish all for one’s sin?)
- If Christ defeated evil, why does it persist so powerfully?
- Substitutionary atonement can seem like cosmic transaction that doesn’t address root problem
- Satan as cosmic adversary risks dualism (if he’s too powerful) or triviality (if he’s not)
- “Already/not yet” tension can feel like excuse for theodicy’s incompleteness
Key Comparative Differences
1. Nature of Human Condition
Jewish/Midrashic: Humans are created with competing impulses but not fundamentally corrupted. Each person starts morally neutral with capacity for both good and evil. The challenge is integration and proper channeling.
Christian: Humans are born into a fallen condition with corrupted nature. Without grace, they cannot not sin. The problem is more radical, requiring divine intervention to fix.
Implication: Christianity sees evil as deeper metaphysical problem requiring supernatural solution. Judaism sees it as navigational challenge requiring wisdom and discipline.
(For detailed elaboration on the Jewish approach to the “Fall” and original sin, see Appendix A below.)
2. Role of Satan/Cosmic Drama
Jewish/Midrashic: Satan (when present) is God’s servant—a prosecutor or tester, not independent rebel. There’s no cosmic rebellion narrative. Evil doesn’t have independent metaphysical status.
Christian: Satan is the great adversary leading cosmic rebellion. History is partly the story of this conflict. This creates dramatic narrative structure but risks dualism.
Implication: Christianity has richer mythology and narrative drama, but at potential cost of theological simplicity and divine unity.
3. Divine Suffering
Jewish: God remains transcendent. God may be affected by human actions (the Shekhinah weeps, God is saddened), but God doesn’t suffer in the way creatures do. Divine impassibility is generally maintained.
Christian: In the incarnation, God enters fully into human suffering. Christ experiences pain, abandonment, death. This is central to Christian theodicy—God’s answer to suffering is to suffer with us.
Implication: Christianity offers profound emotional resonance and solidarity. Judaism maintains clearer divine-human distinction but may seem more distant in suffering.
4. Temporal Focus
Jewish/Midrashic: Primary focus is this world, this life. While there are concepts of Olam Haba (world to come), theodicy primarily addresses how to live righteously now despite evil.
Christian: Strong eschatological orientation. Full answer to evil awaits the eschaton. Current suffering is placed in context of eternal timeline and final judgment/restoration.
Implication: Judaism focuses on present ethical response; Christianity on future hope. Judaism might seem more practical but less comforting. Christianity more comforting but potentially enabling passivity (“pie in the sky”).
5. Solution to Evil
Jewish/Midrashic:
- Torah study and practice
- Acts of kindness and justice
- Tikkun olam (repairing the world) through human action
- Integration of competing impulses
- No single dramatic solution, but ongoing process
Christian:
- Christ’s death and resurrection (already accomplished)
- Individual acceptance through faith
- Sanctification through Holy Spirit
- Final judgment and new creation (future completion)
- Clear narrative arc from Fall to Redemption to Consummation
Implication: Judaism distributes responsibility broadly across community and time. Christianity centralizes solution in Christ-event, providing clarity but also exclusivity concerns.
6. Approach to Theological Explanation
Jewish/Midrashic: More comfortable with mystery and multiple explanations. Midrash offers diverse perspectives without demanding systematic resolution. Values the question as much as the answer.
Christian: Stronger impulse toward systematic theology. Medieval scholastics (Aquinas) and Reformed theologians (Calvin) developed comprehensive theodicies attempting logical completeness.
Implication: Judaism’s pluralism avoids systematic contradictions but may seem less satisfying to those seeking definitive answers. Christianity’s systematization provides clarity but reveals tensions when pushed to logical extremes.
Points of Convergence
Despite differences, both traditions share:
- Affirmation of Divine Goodness: Neither compromises on God being perfectly good
- Rejection of Dualism: Evil is not equal opposing force to God
- Human Freedom: Genuine human choice is essential to both frameworks
- Evil as Privation: Both traditions have versions of evil-as-absence rather than positive substance
- Call to Action: Both demand ethical response to evil, not just intellectual resolution
- Mystery: Both ultimately acknowledge human understanding is limited
Philosophical Evaluation
Does Either Compromise Divine Omnipotence?
Jewish Approach:
- Maintains omnipotence by showing evil doesn’t require God to create it—just to create free beings
- God’s power includes ability to self-limit (tzimtzum concept) without ceasing to be omnipotent
- Potential issue: If evil wasn’t intended, does that mean creation didn’t go according to plan?
Christian Approach:
- Original sin suggests creation fell from intended state, which could imply God’s plan was thwarted
- However, doctrines of providence and predestination (in some traditions) maintain God’s ultimate control
- “Felix culpa” (happy fault)—idea that Fall enabled greater good (incarnation) than would have existed otherwise
- Potential issue: If God foreknew the Fall and planned redemption, wasn’t evil part of the plan all along?
Which Better Addresses Gratuitous Evil?
Both struggle with gratuitous evil—suffering that serves no apparent purpose:
Jewish Approach:
- More honest about mystery
- Doesn’t promise all suffering has meaning
- Focus shifts to how we respond rather than why it exists
- Risk: Can seem less comforting
Christian Approach:
- Insists suffering can be redemptive
- God’s purposes may be beyond understanding but are trustworthy
- Eschatological vindication will reveal all suffering’s purpose
- Risk: Can invalidate victims’ pain by insisting it has “meaning”
Practical Impact
Jewish Approach tends to produce:
- Strong emphasis on social justice and ethical action now
- Less preoccupation with metaphysical evil, more with practical response
- Comfort in community and tradition rather than in explanation
- Resilience through practice (mitzvot) even without understanding
Christian Approach tends to produce:
- Deep personal relationship with a God who understands suffering
- Hope that transcends present circumstances
- Missionary impulse (sharing the solution)
- Sometimes passivity (“God will fix it”) or alternatively activist urgency (“hasten the Kingdom”)
Conclusion
The Jewish Midrashic approach offers a more philosophically austere theodicy that maintains divine simplicity and focuses on human response to evil through ethical action and integration of tensions. It’s comfortable with mystery and emphasizes this-worldly engagement.
The Christian approach provides a richer narrative with cosmic scope, emotional depth through divine suffering, and eschatological hope. It centralizes the solution in Christ’s victory over evil, offering both comfort and meaning to suffering.
Neither fully resolves the logical problem of evil—both ultimately appeal to mystery when pushed to limits. The Jewish approach does so more explicitly and earlier. The Christian approach ventures further into systematic explanation but eventually reaches the same boundary.
Both successfully maintain divine omnipotence by showing evil as privation or possibility rather than positive creation, and both root evil’s possibility in the necessary conditions for genuine freedom and love.
The choice between them may ultimately rest less on logical superiority than on which narrative, practices, and framework better enable human flourishing in the face of evil—which is, perhaps, the real point of theodicy all along.
Appendix A: The Jewish Approach to the Garden of Eden—No “Original Sin”
The Christian doctrine of original sin—that Adam’s transgression corrupted human nature for all subsequent generations—is essentially foreign to Jewish thought. The Midrashic tradition reads the Genesis narrative very differently, with profound implications for theodicy and human nature.
The Jewish Reading of Genesis 3
Not a “Fall” but a Transition: In Jewish interpretation, eating from the tree of knowledge is not the catastrophic cosmic Fall that corrupts all creation. Rather, it’s a transition from innocence to moral consciousness—painful but necessary for human development.
The First Sin, Not Original Sin: Adam and Eve committed the first sin, but this doesn’t fundamentally alter human nature for their descendants. Each person is born morally neutral, with equal capacity for good and evil. As Ezekiel 18:20 states: “The soul that sins shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son.”
Individual Moral Responsibility: Each person stands before God accountable only for their own choices. There is no inherited guilt, no transmission of sinful nature through procreation. A newborn baby is pure, not tainted by ancestral sin.
Key Midrashic Perspectives on the Garden Event
The Necessary Acquisition of Knowledge: Some midrashim view the eating of the fruit as tragic but necessary. Humanity could not remain in eternal childhood. Rabbi Abba bar Kahana taught that Adam was created with the capacity to rule the world but needed to develop moral discernment through experience.
Death Was Already Part of Creation: Unlike Christian reading where death enters through sin, some Jewish interpretations suggest mortality was built into the human condition from the start. Humans were created “from dust” (Genesis 2:7), already marked by mortality. The tree of life offered potential immortality, but its loss doesn’t introduce death—it removes a special protection.
The Serpent’s Role: In Midrash, the serpent (nachash) represents the externalization of the yetzer hara—the inclination that already existed within humanity. The serpent doesn’t introduce evil; it activates what was already present as potential. Some midrashim even suggest the serpent spoke truth mixed with lies, making the temptation more complex than simple deception.
Eve as First Theologian: Interestingly, some midrashim portray Eve in a more positive light than Christian tradition. She engages in theological reasoning with the serpent, adding to God’s command (“neither shall you touch it”) as a protective fence—demonstrating moral reasoning even before eating the fruit. Her curiosity and desire for wisdom are not purely negative.
Adam’s Responsibility: Adam is held accountable for his own choice, not for corrupting humanity. The punishment—mortality, difficult labor, pain in childbirth—are natural consequences of leaving the garden’s protected state and entering the world as it is, not cosmic curses that warp reality itself.
Theological Implications of Rejecting Original Sin
No Inherited Guilt: The most fundamental difference—children are not born guilty of Adam’s sin. Bar/Bat Mitzvah (age 13/12) marks when a person becomes morally responsible, not because they’re inheriting sin but because they’re reaching maturity.
Teshuvah (Repentance) Is Always Possible: Because human nature isn’t fundamentally corrupted, repentance and return to God is always within human capacity. You don’t need supernatural grace to turn from sin—you need will, effort, and God’s mercy. Teshuvah was created before the world, according to some midrashim, anticipating human failure but also human capacity for return.
No Need for Mediator: If there’s no original sin requiring supernatural cleansing, there’s no need for a savior figure to repair corrupted nature. The covenant relationship with God is direct. This is a key theological divide with Christianity.
Optimistic Anthropology: Judaism has a fundamentally more optimistic view of human nature. Yes, the yetzer hara exists, but so does yetzer hatov. Humans are capable of righteousness through their own choices, aided by Torah and community.
Work as Dignity, Not Curse: In Jewish reading, work existed before the sin (Adam was placed in the garden “to work it and keep it”—Genesis 2:15). After leaving Eden, work becomes harder, but it remains dignified human activity, not punishment for corrupted nature.
The Midrashic “Fortunate Mistake”?
Some midrashim hint at something like the Christian “felix culpa” (fortunate fall):
Rabbi Nachman’s Teaching: He suggested that the eating of the fruit, while disobedient, enabled humanity to develop the moral consciousness necessary for genuine relationship with God. Automatic obedience without understanding isn’t true service.
Entry into History: The garden represented static perfection. Leaving it meant entering history, time, mortality—and therefore meaningful choice, growth, and the possibility of genuine virtue developed through struggle.
The Gift of Free Will Realized: In the garden, freedom was theoretical. In the world, freedom became concrete and consequential. This is the arena where humans truly become “image of God”—creators and choosers.
However, unlike Christianity, this isn’t framed as God’s plan requiring the sin. Rather, God created humans with freedom knowing they might err, and prepared ways for them to return and grow even through failure.
Why This Matters for Theodicy
Evil Doesn’t Require Cosmic Explanation: If humanity isn’t fundamentally corrupted by original sin, evil doesn’t need elaborate metaphysical explanation. It’s the natural possibility when free beings navigate moral choices with competing inclinations.
God’s Goodness Unchallenged: God didn’t create a flawed humanity that inevitably sins. God created humans with genuine freedom, knowing freedom entails risk. The blame for evil rests with human choices, not divine design flaw.
Suffering Isn’t Punishment for Adam: Individual suffering cannot be explained as punishment for ancestral guilt. It must be addressed on its own terms—as part of living in a natural world, as consequence of human choices (individual or collective), or ultimately as mystery.
Hope Without Apocalypse: Since humanity isn’t waiting for supernatural rescue from inherited corruption, the focus shifts to incremental repair (tikkun olam), education, ethical community, and Torah study. Redemption is process, not event.
Each Generation Starts Fresh: Every person has equal opportunity for righteousness. There’s no inherited disadvantage requiring supernatural grace. This places enormous emphasis on education, mentorship, and moral formation.
Rabbinic Views on Human Nature
Maimonides: Humans are created with intellectual and moral capacity intact. Evil results from ignorance, misdirected passion, or bad habits—all correctable through education and discipline. There’s no ontological corruption requiring supernatural intervention.
The Talmud’s Balance: “Everything is in the hands of Heaven except the fear of Heaven” (Berakhot 33b). God controls circumstances, but moral choice remains human responsibility. Neither freedom nor responsibility is compromised by inherited sin.
Yom Kippur’s Assumption: The holiest day of the Jewish year assumes teshuvah works—that humans can genuinely repent and be forgiven. If human nature were totally corrupted, this would be impossible without supernatural transformation.
Contrasts with Christian Original Sin Doctrine
| Aspect | Jewish View | Christian View |
|---|---|---|
| Nature of Adam’s Sin | First sin, serious disobedience | Cosmic catastrophe, Fall |
| Transmission | Not inherited | Passed to all descendants |
| Human Nature After | Intact but challenged | Corrupted, depraved |
| Infant Condition | Innocent, pure | Born in sin, guilty |
| Remedy | Teshuvah, Torah, effort | Grace, faith, Christ |
| Possibility of Righteousness | Within human capacity | Impossible without grace |
| Death | Natural or consequence | Punishment for sin |
| Theological Focus | Individual responsibility | Collective fallen condition |
The Midrashic Narrative Arc
Rather than Fall → Redemption → Restoration (Christian arc), the Jewish narrative is:
Creation → Moral Awakening → Ongoing Choice → Learning Through Consequence → Teshuvah → Tikkun Olam → Messianic Age (Maybe)
It’s less dramatic but more continuous. History isn’t defined by single catastrophic event requiring single dramatic solution. It’s the long story of humans learning to use freedom wisely, supported by Torah, community, and divine patience.
Practical Implications
Education Over Salvation: If humans aren’t fundamentally broken, they need education, not saving. This explains Judaism’s intense focus on study, apprenticeship, and moral formation.
Community Responsibility: Without original sin, there’s less emphasis on individual salvation and more on collective responsibility. “All Israel is responsible for one another” (Talmud, Shevuot 39a).
This-World Focus: No need to wait for supernatural intervention to fix corrupted nature. The work of righteousness happens here, now, through human effort guided by Torah.
Realistic Optimism: Judaism avoids both naive optimism (humans are naturally good and will progress inevitably) and pessimistic anthropology (humans are hopelessly depraved). Instead: humans have genuine capacity for good and evil, requiring constant vigilance, education, and community support.
Conclusion to Appendix
The rejection of original sin doctrine is one of the most significant theological differences between Judaism and Christianity. It produces a fundamentally different anthropology, soteriology, and theodicy.
For the problem of evil specifically, it means:
- Evil doesn’t require elaborate cosmic backstory
- God isn’t responsible for corrupted human nature
- Each person’s moral choices are genuinely their own
- Hope lies in human capacity for teshuvah, not in awaiting supernatural rescue
- The emphasis shifts from metaphysical explanation to practical response
This makes the Jewish approach to evil philosophically cleaner (no original sin to explain) but emotionally starker (no promise that all suffering serves hidden redemptive purpose). It’s a more austere theodicy but also, arguably, a more honest one.
O Sentido da Vida - The Meaning of life 