A Theological Response to the Buddhist Doctrine of Karma and the Christian Doctrine of Theodicy

December 15, 2016 by David Moe

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Since evil remains active in this world, we continue praying "Lord, deliver us from evil" (Matt. 6:13b). As we pray, the Spirit helps us escape from evil. In addition to dependence on the Spirit, we strive for escaping from evil by self-cultivating our mind.

4. Ethical and Eschatological Response to Karma and Theodicy

The summary of Buddhist law is: "doing good karma, avoiding bad karma, and cultivating mind." Buddhists stress that the first two are possible through the third. Since the mind is the source of both evil and compassion, Buddhists stress on cultivating mind in order to achieve the ethical principles. Doing good karma, such as helping the poor and almsgiving to the monks are crucial to Buddhist faith and practice. Since nirvana is unattainable for all Buddhists, their aim is to do good karma in this life, which will bring good rebirth in their life to come. Life before death and life after death is equally important for Buddhists. Living in the time between now and after—the struggle between good and evil is crucial to Buddhists and they see the equal strength of good and evil.

In response to Buddhist ethical struggle between good and evil, I would argue that the struggle between good and evil is crucial to Christian ethical lives, too. Paul said, "for I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do the very evil thing I hate because sin dwells in me" (Rom. 7:15-19). The struggle between good and evil is more comprehensible when we make a distinction between two kinds of sin: sin of omission (we fail to do good what we should do) and sin of commission (we do what we should not do). In this sense, Buddhists stress that evil comes from humans' ethical failure to do good karma. For example, oppression in socio-political context is a direct cause from oppressors rather than from the cause of God. How should we respond to Buddhists in this case?

At one level, Buddhists are right in saying that socio-political oppression comes from a direct cause of human evils. Again this is the result of humans' free choice of committing evil karma. I believe that God may permit evils to happen in this redeemed, yet sinful or evil world (Gal. 1:4), but God is ultimately responsible for justice in the midst of evils. But natural evils happen more as the natural cause of the sinful world rather than as the direct cause of human evils. In either case, God of justice is responsible for healing the broken humans and world in partnership with moral agents—humans. In this regard, moral Buddhists and Christians are both the stewards of God's creation.

Another critical question raised by Buddhists in the face of evils is: where is God of justice in the midst of human suffering? I often hear this in Myanmar. In response to this, I argue that Buddhists are not the first people who ask this. The Psalmist first asked: "my God, my God, why have you forsaken me; why are you so far from saving me? (Ps. 22:1-2). Jesus Himself echoes this on the cross, saying "My God, my God where have you forsaken me" (Mk. 15:34). We must respond this with the attributes of God. God is merciful to all suffering beings regardless of whom. Since God is transcendently hidden in nature, we cannot see His immanent presence, but we can experience His omnipresence and omnipotence by faith in the face of evils. It is difficult for Buddhists to accept this because their doctrine is based on philosophical realism. We must be patient to convince them that Jesus does not merely suffer for us (vicarious suffering), but He suffers with us as our divine healer (solidarity-suffering). The Jesus who experiences human suffering shares our pain and fights against evils as we pass through the valley of death. In short, the problem of evils is not contradictory to the silence of God of justice.

The final question raised by Buddhists is: why do good people suffer and bad people do not if God is just? The answer for this is difficult. Two possible responses should be made. First, for Christians, sin is the root-cause of cosmic suffering. Sin has no eyes and no mercy. It can catch anyone good or bad. Second, everything good or bad happens for the glory of God. Let me relate the latter to Jesus' answer to question by the disciples about the retributive explanation of a man's blind. The disciples asked, "Teacher, who sinned, this man or his parents, that was born blind?" Jesus replied, "Neither than man nor his parents, this happened so that the works of God may be displayed in him (Jn. 9:2-3). To this contrast, Buddhist must say, "that man."

In sum, Buddhism and Christianity have some convergences and divergences on karma and theodicy. We see more convergences from the ethical perspective, and more divergences from the eschatological perspective. Soterio-ethically speaking, we are not saved by the law of karma, but we are saved for the law of good karma (moral law).

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