Abstract
In a comparative study of karma theodicy and atonement theodicy, as developed by some Hindu and Christian theologians, this article argues that they present teleological visions where individuals become purged, purified, and perfected in and through their worldly suffering. A karma theodicy operates with the notion that there is some form of proportionality between past evil and present suffering, even if such correlations can only be traced by an enlightened sage or are known to the omniscient God. Christian mystics too seek not so much to explain suffering as to identify suffering with the agony of Christ on the cross, and they envision such suffering as part of a unitive journey where their love of Christ is purified. In these ways, both styles of theodicy use rational resources towards the goal of explanation, while reminding their adherents that the faltering intelligibility that they seek is to be seen as an integral component of their active participation in a sense of theological mystery that enfolds, and yet transcends, their finite existences.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
References
Adams, Marilyn McCord. 1999. Horrendous Evils and the Goodness of God. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
Alston, William P. 1991. “The Inductive Argument from Evil and the Human Cognitive Condition.” Philosophical Perspectives 5: 29–67.
Blair, J. L. 1963. “The Relation of the Incarnation to the Atonement.” Scottish Journal of Theology 16, 1: 68–77.
Burley, Mikel. 2013. “Retributive Karma and the Problem of Blaming the Victim.” International Journal of Philosophy of Religion 74, 2: 149–65.
Burrell, David B., with A. H. Johns. 2008. Deconstructing Theodicy: Why Job Has Nothing to Say to the Puzzle of Suffering. Grand Rapids: BrazosPress.
Cave, Sydney. 1919. Redemption: Hindu and Christian. London: Oxford University Press.
Chadha, Monima and Nick Trakakis. 2007. “Karma and the Problem of Evil: A Response to Kaufman.” Philosophy East and West 57, 4: 533–56.
Clooney, Francis X. 1989. “Evil, Divine Omnipotence, and Human Freedom: Vedānta’s Theology of Karma.” The Journal of Religion 69, 4: 530–48.
Crisp, Oliver. 2011. “Salvation and Atonement: On the Value and Necessity of the Work of Jesus Christ.” In Ivor J. Davidson and Murray A. Rae, eds., God of Salvation: Soteriology in Theological Perspective, 105–20. Farnham: Ashgate.
Davis, Stephen T. 1990. “Universalism, Hell, and the Fate of the Ignorant.” Modern Theology 6, 2: 173–86.
Demarest, Bruce. 1997. The Cross and Salvation: The Doctrine of Salvation. Wheaton: Crossway Books.
Dhavamony, Mariasusai. 1991. “Christianity and Reincarnation.” In Arthur and Joyce Berger, eds., Reincarnation: Fact or Fable?, 153–65. London: The Aquarian Press.
Fiddes, Paul S. 1989. Past Event and Present Salvation: The Christian Idea of Atonement. London: Darton, Longman & Todd.
Gandhi, Mohandas Karamchand. 1990. “Extracts from The Story of My Experiments with Truth.” In Paul J. Griffiths, ed., Christianity Through Non-Christian Eyes, 215–27. Maryknoll: Orbis Books.
Graham, Gordon. 2010. “Atonement.” In Charles Taliaferro and Chad Meister, eds., The Cambridge Companion to Christian Philosophical Theology, 124–35. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Gunton, Colin E. 1988. The Actuality of Atonement: A Study of Metaphor, Rationality and the Christian Tradition. London: T & T Clark.
Gupta, Mahendranath. 2010 [1902–32]. Śrīśrīrāmakṛṣṇakathāmṛta: Śrīma-kathita. Kolkata: Udbodhan.
Herman, A. L. 1971. “Indian Theodicy: Śaṁkara and Rāmānuja on Brahma Sūtra II. 1. 32–36.” Philosophy East and West 21, 3: 265–81.
Herman, Arthur L. 1976. The Problem of Evil and Indian Thought. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass.
Hick, John. 2010 [1966]. Evil and the God of Love. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Hogg, A. G. 1909 [1904–5]. Karma and Redemption: An Essay Toward the Interpretation of Hinduism and the Re-Statement of Christianity. Madras: The Christian Literature Society.
Hogg, A. G. 1917. “The God That Must Needs Be Christ Jesus.” International Review of Missions 6, 2: 221–32.
Hogg, A. G. 1947. The Christian Message to the Hindu. London: S.C.M. Press.
Jathanna, Origen Vasantha. 1981. The Decisiveness of the Christ-Event and the Universality of Christianity in a World of Religious Plurality. Berne: Peter Lang.
Jensen, Paul. 1993. “Forgiveness and Atonement.” Scottish Journal of Theology, 46, 2: 141–59.
Kaufman, Whitley R. P. 2005. “Karma, Rebirth, and the Problem of Evil.” Philosophy East and West 55, 1: 15–32.
Long, Jeffery D. 2016. “Like a Dog’s Curly Tail: Finding Perfection in a World of Imperfection: A Hindu Theodicy in the Tradition of Sri Ramakrishna.” In Michelle Voss Roberts, ed., Comparing Faithfully: Insights for Systematic Theological Reflection, 107–25. New York: Fordham University Press.
MacGregor, Geddes. 1991. “Is Reincarnation Compatible with Christian Faith?” In Arthur and Joyce Berger, eds., Reincarnation: Fact or Fable?, 89–98. London: The Aquarian Press.
Mackie, J. L. 1955. “Evil and Omnipotence.” Mind (ns) 64, 254: 200–212.
Maharaj, Ayon. 2018. Infinite Paths to Infinite Reality: Sri Ramakrishna and Cross-Cultural Philosophy of Religion. New York: Oxford University Press.
Malkovsky, Bradley. 2010. “Some Recent Developments in Hindu Understandings of Christ.” Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies 23: 3–8.
Matilal, Bimal K. 1992. “A Note on Śaṃkara’s Theodicy.” Journal of Indian Philosophy 20, 4: 363–76.
McDermott, Thomas. 2008. Catherine of Siena: Spiritual Development in Her Life and Teaching. Mahwah: Paulist Press.
McGrath, Alister E. 1983. “Divine Justice and Divine Equity in the Controversy Between Augustine and Julian of Eclanum.” The Downside Review 101, 345: 312–19.
McIntyre, John. 1992. The Shape of Soteriology. Edinburgh: T&T Clark.
Moser, Paul K. 2010. “Sin and Salvation.” In Charles Taliaferro and Chad Meister, eds., The Cambridge Companion to Christian Philosophical Theology, 136–51. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Mumme, Patricia Y. 1987. “Grace and Karma in Nammāḻvār’s Salvation.” Journal of the American Oriental Society 107, 2: 257–66.
Murdoch, John, comp. 1893 [1888]. The Brahmo Samaj and Other Modern Eclectic Systems of Religions in India. Part 4: Religious Reform. Madras: The Christian Literature Society.
Murphy, Mark C. 2009. “Not Penal Substitution but Vicarious Punishment.” Faith and Philosophy 26, 3: 253–73.
Paramananda, Swami. 1919. “The Harvest Field of Life.” The Message of the East 8, 3 (March): 49–55.
Paramananda, Swami. 1961 [1923]. Reincarnation and Immortality. Cohasset: Vedanta Center. [A collection of articles from the Vedanta monthly The Message of the East.]
Phillips, Stephen H. 2009, Yoga, Karma, and Rebirth: A Brief History and Philosophy. New York: Columbia University Press.
Placher, William C. 1996. The Domestication of Transcendence: How Modern Thinking About God Went Wrong. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press.
Radhakrishnan, S. 1932. An Idealist View of Life. London: George Allen & Unwin.
Reichenbach, Bruce R. 1989. “Karma, Causation and Divine Intervention.” Philosophy East and West 39, 2: 135–49.
Rist, John M. 1994. Augustine: Ancient Thought Baptized. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Robinson, John A. T. 1950. In the End, God…A Study of the Christian Doctrine of the Last Things. Cambridge: James Clarke.
Rowe, William L. 1996. “The Evidential Argument from Evil: A Second Look.” In Daniel Howard-Snyder, ed., The Evidential Argument from Evil, 262–85. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Roy, Rammohun. 1951a. “An Appeal to the Christian Public in Defence of ‘The Precepts of Jesus’.” In Kalidas Nag and Debajyoti Burman eds., The English Works of Raja Rammohun Roy, 57–71. Part 5 of 7. Calcutta: Sadharan Brahmo Samaj. [Available online at: https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.38404/page/n623/mode/2up (accessed June 22, 2020).]
Roy, Rammohun. 1951b. “Second Appeal to the Christian Public in Defence of ‘The Precepts of Jesus’.” In Kalidas Nag and Debajyoti Burman eds., The English Works of Raja Rammohun Roy, 1–97. Part 6 of 7. Calcutta: Sadharan Brahmo Samaj. [Available online at: https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.38404/page/n623/mode/2up (accessed June 22, 2020).]
Roy, Rammohun. 1951c. “Final Appeal to the Christian Public in Defence of ‘The Precepts of Jesus’.” In Kalidas Nag and Debajyoti Burman eds., The English Works of Raja Rammohun Roy, 1–178. Part 7 of 7. Calcutta: Sadharan Brahmo Samaj. [Available online at: https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.38404/page/n623/mode/2up (accessed June 22, 2020).]
Sharma, Arvind. 1990a. A Hindu Perspective on the Philosophy of Religion. New York: St. Martin’s Press.
Sharma, Arvind. 1990b. “Karma and Reincarnation in Advaita Vedānta.” Journal of Indian Philosophy 18, 3: 219–36.
Sharma, Arvind. 2008. “Karma, Rebirth, and the Problem of Evil: An Interjection in the Debate Between Whitley Kaufman and Monima Chadha and Nick Trakakis.” Philosophy East and West 58, 4: 572–75.
Stoeber, Michael. 1992. Evil and the Mystics’ God: Towards a Mystical Theodicy. London: Macmillan.
Stump, Eleonore. 2010. Wandering in Darkness: Narrative and the Problem of Suffering. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Surin, Kenneth. 1989. The Turnings of Darkness and Light: Essays in Philosophical and Systematic Theology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Swinburne, Richard. 1989. Responsibility and Atonement. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Talbott, Thomas. 1990. “The Doctrine of Everlasting Punishment.” Faith and Philosophy 7, 1: 19–42.
Thibaut, George, trans. 1904. The Vedântâ-Sûtras with the Commentary by Râmânuja. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Thomas, M. M. 1969. The Acknowledged Christ of the Indian Renaissance. London: S.C.M. Press.
Van Inwagen, Peter. 1996. “The Problem of Evil, the Problem of Air, and the Problem of Silence.” In Daniel Howard-Snyder ed., The Evidential Argument from Evil, 151–74. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Vedåntadeçika. 1980. Śrīmad Rahasyatrayasāra (ed. U. T. Viraraghavacharya). Madras: U.T. Viraraghavacharya.
Walsh, Maureen L. 2012. “Re-imagining Redemption: Universal Salvation in the Theology of Julian of Norwich.” Horizons 39, 2: 189–207.
Weber, Max. 1958 [1916–17]. The Religion of India: The Sociology of Hinduism and Buddhism (trans. and eds. Hans H. Gerth and Don Martindale). Glencoe: Free Press.
White, Vernon. 1991. Atonement and Incarnation: An Essay in Universalism and Particularity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Windeatt, Barry, ed. 2015. Julian of Norwich: Revelations of Divine Love. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Wykstra, Stephen. 1984. “The Humean Obstacle to Evidential Arguments from Suffering: On Avoiding the Evils of ‘Appearance’.” International Journal for Philosophy of Religion 16, 2: 73–93.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
About this article
Cite this article
Barua, A. The Mystery of God and the Claim of Reason: Comparative Patterns in Hindu-Christian Theodicy. Hindu Studies 25, 259–288 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11407-021-09306-7
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11407-021-09306-7