The “Soul-Making” Explanation

Over 100 years before Augustine, Irenaeus (ca. AD 120-200) had already suggested another explanation for the existence of evil and suffering. We might call it the “what doesn’t kill us makes us stronger” theodicy. The official term for it is the soul-making theodicy. The idea is that suffering and pain help us to grow and mature in our character and relationship with God.

We might liken it to someone who is training for a sport. No one can wake up one morning after doing nothing their whole life and run a marathon without stopping. You have to train to run 26.2 miles without stopping. You may have heard the motto, “No pain, no gain.”

You get the point. Without “resistance,” we would likely all become morally flabby. The challenges of life give us the opportunity to dig in, “fight the good fight” (2 Tim. 4:7), and grow. Or we can shrink away and wither away morally (Heb. 10:39).

This is the approach that C. S. Lewis took in his 1940 book, The Problem of Pain. Interestingly, as a British evangelical, Lewis generally assumed that evolution had some validity, although he does question it in one or two places. The soul-making theodicy is particularly important for Christians who try to integrate the theory of evolution into their faith, although one certainly can also see the value of the soul-making theodicy if one rejects evolution.