Omnipotence Cannot Simply Wash its Hands of Evil
“In order to show solidarity with the weak, God voluntarily empties Godself of power, freely chooses not to exercise this power, and this divine kenosis does not contradict omnipotence but manifests it. I do not travel down that path because it smacks of a ruse, a kind of docetism, in which weakness is an even more profound demonstration of power, and because it re-implicates God in evil. Omnipotence cannot simply wash its hands of evil simply on the grounds that it has chosen not to intervene.”
The above passage comes from John Caputo’s marvelous work The Weakness of God: A Theology of The Event. To me, this charge is damming for those thoughtful theists who feel the need to keep an all-powerful and all-loving God in their back pocket. It seems obvious to me that there is simply no way to keep both of those classical divine attributes (kenosis or not), reserving the ability for God to be able to step-in at any time, without implicating God in evil.
In full-disclosure, the problem of evil is what lead me to almost leave the Christian faith, and religion in general. It was only encountering other mystical, radical and especially process theological understandings of God that I was able to remain in Christianity as a panentheist, or perhaps a pluralistic pantheist, but certainly no longer a classical theist.
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Painting above by Maki Ohkojima
Had to look up this term: Panentheism (from Greek πᾶν (pân) "all"; ἐν (en) "in"; and θεός (theós) "God"; "all-in-God") is a belief system which posits that the divine (be it a monotheistic God, polytheistic gods, or an eternal cosmic animating force[1]) interpenetrates every part of nature and timelessly extends beyond it. Panentheism differentiates itself from pantheism, which holds that the divine is synonymous with the universe.[2] Unlike pantheism, panentheism maintains the identity and significance of the non-divine in the world.[3]
In panentheism, the universe in the first formulation is practically the whole itself. In the second formulation, the universe and the divine are not ontologically equivalent. In panentheism, God is viewed as the eternal animating force behind the universe. Some versions suggest that the universe is nothing more than the manifest part of God. In some forms of panentheism, the cosmos exists within God, who in turn "transcends", "pervades" or is "in" the cosmos. While pantheism asserts that 'All is God', panentheism goes further to claim that God is greater than the universe. In addition, some forms indicate that the universe is contained within God,[2] like in the concept of Tzimtzum. Much Hindu thought is highly characterized by panentheism and pantheism.[4][5] Hasidic Judaism merges the elite ideal of nullification to paradoxical transcendent Divine Panentheism, through intellectual articulation of inner dimensions of Kabbalah, with the populist emphasis on the panentheistic Divine immanence in everything and deeds of kindness.
I believe we are a part of God, he made us in his image. The evil comes from this world only not through the entire universe. Evil come from the absence of God, since we are only part of God, when we choose, since we are free to choose, we separate and thus evil radiates. Souls that do not worship the divine, or choose to never have, have parts of their beings missing and thus are capable of extreme evil. Evil is everywhere in this earthly world and I tend to shy away from these creatures and their encounters. I believe you can be drawn into evil very easily and resisting can be difficult but I call on my God, "and protect us from evil" (part of the Our Father) and it seemed to work for me time and time again.
My friend Jey is Hindu and is one of the loveliest humans I have ever met in my journeys. She has a pure soul and her deeds and kindness represents her beliefs. She lives her beliefs.