Beyond reconciliation - monistic Yahwism and the problem of evil in philosophy of religion

Abstract

Reconciliation is a central concern in the religious discourse of biblical Yahwism. However, one frequently overlooked part of the equation for reconcilement is the insistence in many Old Testament texts that YHWH is ultimately the necessary cause of metaphysical, natural and moral evil in the world. In this article, the author aims to demonstrate why any biblical theology of reconciliation will be problematic, given the inextricable presence of a monistic ontology underlying the relation between YHWH and evil in many biblical texts. Taken seriously, these trajectories in Old Testament Yahwism deconstruct the so-called 'Problem of Evil' along with virtually every popular theodicy constructed in the philosophy of religion.