Cohesive and Disjointed Musings on Evil and Free Will

This semester, I am taking a seminar on evil that has been a fascinating overlap to some of our class discussions. Though the question of evil and suffering is not one I will undertake to address here, some of my ponderings on evil actually relate to Narnia. What follows are some gossamer strands of thought, and I invite you to consider some of these questions with me.

In class, we have frequently discussed the paradox between the goodness and terribleness of Aslan. “ ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you,” Mr. Beaver avers in LLW. Is a good lion one who seemingly disappears for long periods of time, leaving his creatures to bear with suffering and oppression? Is a good lion one who allows wickedness to prosper in his own kingdom? Is a good lion one who uses pain to free those who are bound, as in the case of Eustace? While The Chronicles is not an allegory, these questions of Aslan can translate into questions of God. Is a good God one who seems to withdraw as His creation labors under suffering and oppression? Is a good God one who allows evil to prosper in His kingdom? Is a good God one who uses pain to free those who are bound?

Though I am deeply troubled by evil’s current reign in the world, I believe it operates on a temporary condition of divine allowance, and somehow, this allowance will ultimately be used for the good of God’s creatures and the glory of His purposes. In the same way, evil is allowed to exist in Narnia for a time, but as was known from the beginning, Aslan would be the ultimate victor over evil and the final healer of all brokenness. If Aslan and God share in this parallel of bringing ultimate good, why must suffering and evil be allowed to exist in either world, then?

I find that Lewis himself provides some semblance of answer to this question in The Screwtape Letters. In one of these letters, the high-ranking demon Screwtape explains to his protégé and nephew, Wormwood, the baffling reality of human free will. Though the quote is lengthy and one our class will read by the end of the semester, I think it fitting to mention here: “One must face the fact that all the talk about His love for men, and His service being perfect freedom, is not (as one would gladly believe) mere propaganda, but an appalling truth. He really does want to fill the universe with a lot of loathsome little replicas of Himself – creatures whose life, on its miniature scale, will be qualitatively like His own, not because He has absorbed them but because their wills freely conform to His….It is during such trough periods, much more than during the peak periods, that it is growing into the sort of creature He wants it to be. Hence the prayers offered in the state of dryness are those which please Him best….he wants them to learn to walk and must therefore take away His hand; and if only the will to walk is really there He is pleased even with their stumbles. Do not be deceived, Wormwood. Our cause is never more in danger than when a human, no longer desiring, but still intending to do our Enemy’s will, looks round upon a universe from which every trace of Him seems to have vanished, and asks why he has been forsaken, and still obeys” (39-40).

Though Screwtape is speaking of God, perhaps Aslan’s periods of absence from Narnia and his allowance of evil can be explained in the same way. If evil did not exist, would there be such a thing as free will? Perhaps part of the mysterious opportunity in evil is that it gives us the choice of response. Although we cannot control evil, we can control our reaction to it. Where does this leave God? In His allowance of evil, He gives us the freedom to choose Him or reject Him. (I’m purposely not going to open the theological can of worms suggested by that statement!) God doesn’t need the bad for His divine scheme, yet He’s promised to use it anyway. In the same way, Aslan’s actions give his creatures the freedom to believe him or reject him while he nevertheless promises to finally defeat evil. In the same way, just as God uses pain to free us from ourselves, Aslan uses his claws to free Eustace from the dragon’s scales.

Perhaps it is the Achilles heel of Satan that his worst attempts at evil and destruction can make a human a purer reflection of the image of God because of that human’s free will to find God in suffering.