Shaytan’s Handiwork

Abstract

The problem of evil in the world has long perplexed believers in the Abrahamic religions. Monotheism is a difficult concept to reconcile with the innocent suffering, death, disease, and devastating catastrophes that plague our world. Innocent suffering seriously challenges the comforting notion of a just and loving God that deserves our devotion. Long before the historical emergence of Abrahamic monotheism, polytheistic and henotheistic traditions, such as those in ancient Egypt or Canaan, attributed innocent suffering to rival deities and cosmic forces in conflict. Ascribing evil to a particular deity or supernatural being proved to be a popular explanation for the problem of evil (i.e., theodicy) and a fixture of the religious imagination. The idea persevered in modified forms in the theodicies of all three of the Abrahamic religions (to varying degrees) despite the problems that the idea of the “Evil One” poses for monotheistic belief systems.