Humanity, despite our best efforts, cannot answer the question as to why God allows evil to occur.
When the famous American writer Thornton Wilder was an infant, one event changed the course of his life forever. In the words of Wilder himself,
Two sons were born to the Wilders of Madison Wisconsin toward midnight on April 17, 1897. In those days twins were not predictable, but an array of family names were waiting for the newcomer … but one of the twins died at birth. … Either little Theophilus or little Thornton died, leaving an identical replica of himself behind. The survivor was christened Thornton. [1]
This, understandably, has had a tremendous impact not only on his life but also on his work. According to his nephew, Tappan Wilder, Thornton Wilder was “haunted all his life by his brother’s death and felt a kind of survivor’s guilt.” [2] When one looks closely, we can see the references to this tragedy in much of his works. [3] His most famous play, Our Town, starts with the town doctor successfully delivering twins. This is how he decides to illustrate an idyllic setting: both twins survive. Nor is that the only time the event is mentioned in the play:
“Stage Manager: And the population, Professor Willard?
Professor Willard: Within the town limits, 2,640.
Stage Manager: Just a moment, Professor.
He whispers into the professor’s ear.
Professor Willard: Oh, yes, indeed? – The population, at the moment, is 2,642.” [4]
In many ways, the work where this concern seems most evident is Theophilus North. This book was meant to be an imagined biography of this twin, who fulfills nine ambitions that Thornton imagines that his brother may have had. The book’s main theme is hope. In each chapter, Theophilus takes someone in despair and brings them to hope and new life. Simeon Zahl has even commented that Theophilus can be viewed as a Holy Spirit character. [5]
But the book where this event in Wilder’s life becomes most profound literarily comes from his Pulitzer Prize winning novel The Bridge of San Luis Rey. This story starts quite abruptly with a bridge in Peru collapsing, killing five. Wilder then frames the story to come: “‘Why did this happen to those five?’ … Either we live by accident and die by accident, or we live by plan and die by plan.” [6]
You can read the question behind the question: Why did his brother die?
The story then outlines the lives of three people who will die in this accident: the Marquesa de Montemayor, Estaban, and Uncle Pio. With perhaps a bit too much speculation on my part, there are many similarities between Estaban and Wilder. Estaban is himself a twin, who does everything with his brother Manuel. This lines up with Theophilus’ imaged life in Theophilus North. Even into adulthood, very few could tell the difference between the two; the names of the two are often confused, as Wilder imagines was the case with his twin in the first hour of their lives. When his twin dies, Estaban is never the same; “All the world was remote and strange and hostile except one’s brother.” [7] Manuel and Estaban both die in the novel, one due to an illness and the other due to the bridge. And the novel begs the question: why did they die?
Thornton Wilder is not the only one who has had a radical event involving death change his life.
Brother Juniper, the monk who attempts to answer this question of life and death, is hanged for heresy. Humanity, despite our best efforts, cannot answer the question as to why God allows evil to occur. However, that is not the end of the story, simply the first scene in the final chapter, entitled “Perhaps an Intention.” The real answer comes in the two final interactions of the novel between a nun and two women who lost loved ones in the collapse of the bridge. In one of the exchanges, Doña Clara, who lost her mother in the accident, came with guilt and was given grace. In the other interaction Camila, who lost both a son and a close friend, converses with the same nun, Madre Maria del Pilar, while in Sister Juana's garden, which I take to be a symbol of forgiveness and new life. While the specifics of the conversation are not noted in the novel, it ends with something that sounds quite similar to absolution: “And then the whole tide of Camila’s long despair, her lonely obstinate despair since her girlhood, found its rest on that dusty lap among Sister Juana’s fountains and roses” [8].
We will never be able to look into the events of this world and accurately see how God is at work. These events remain hidden to us; “That wisdom which sees the invisible things of God in works as perceived by man is completely puffed up, blinded, and hardened.” [9] We cannot look to God hidden in the events of our daily lives and determine whether God loves us. Rather, God has told us precisely what his will is, precisely what he thinks of us. This was so important that he died to give us this good news. You can find the will of God when God became incarnate to forgive and give eternal life. God’s answer to death is resurrection, and this answer is much more powerful than any explanation as to why God allows death to happen. God doesn’t answer tragedy with empty words of rationalization, but with a Word so strong and full that it bestows hope and life upon its hearers.
Thornton Wilder is not the only one who has had a radical event involving death change his life. Your life has also been touched by dying, but of a different kind:
Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. (Rom. 6:3-5)
As a baptized Christian, your big death, as Luther called it, is already behind you. The problem of theodicy, the problem of death, has already been solved for you through water and Word. In this declaration, no bad circumstances in this life endure, for you have already been given everything you could ever need. This is not to say that nothing bad will happen to you or that you can never be sad about your circumstances. But it does mean Christ has given us a promise that is even more powerful: no bad situation has the final word, Jesus does. And this Word from Jesus is forgiveness, life, and salvation. In the midst of all sorts of problems, Christ holds you fast, as he has promised in this sacrament. God’s will for you is found at the fount, where forgiveness and life are given to you freely.
This article comes to us from 1517 guest contributor, Charlie Ziemann. Charlie received a Master of Divinity from Luther House of Study and a Diploma in Theology for Ministry from the University of Cambridge. He is currently a middle school math teacher and this fall he is planning to continue his education at Princeton Theological Seminary.
[1] Buckley, Christopher. “Foreword.” Introduction. In Theophilus North, xi–xviii. New York: First Harper Perennial Modern Classics, 2019, xv - xvi.
[2] Buckley, Christopher. “Foreword.” Introduction. In Theophilus North, xi–xviii. New York: First Harper Perennial Modern Classics, 2019, xv.
[3] Tappan Wilder points to the same novels in referencing his uncle’s writing being affected by having a twin at birth.
[4] Wilder, Thornton. Our Town. New York: First Harper Perennial Modern Classics, 2020, 21.
[5] Simeon Zahl may have mentioned this in an article or a podcast, but if memory serves correctly, he mentioned this in a Holy Spirit seminar that he led. Simeon Zahl was the one who first introduced me to Thornton Wilder.
[6] Wilder, Thornton. The Bridge of San Luis Rey. New York: First Vintage Classics Edition, 2023, 5.
[7] Wilder, Thornton. The Bridge of San Luis Rey. New York: First Vintage Classics Edition, 2023, 46.
[8] Wilder, Thornton. The Bridge of San Luis Rey. New York: First Vintage Classics Edition, 2023, 114.
[9] Luther, Martin. “Heidelberg Disputation (1518).” Book of Concord, November 2, 2020. https://thebookofconcord.org/sources-and-context/heidelberg-disputation/, Thesis 22.
