ABSTRACT
For Christians the fundamental answer to the problem of evil is Jesus Christ. Pope John Paul II explains in his Apostolic Letter Salvifici Doloris that the true 'opposite of salvation' is not suffering but 'damnation'. The debate concerning the problem of evil can be described fittingly as a debate, in part, between monism and dualism. Balthasar is careful to argue that the 'self-sacrifice' within the essence of God. William Young's remarkably popular novel The Shack centers around both the problem of evil and the Trinity and expresses insights concerning each that resonate with the theology of Balthasar. The question of natural evil is arguably even more difficult than that of moral evil. Alvin Plantinga suggests that natural evil is due to the angelic abuse of free will. All human suffering and death, conformed by God's grace to the Paschal Mystery of Christ, has ultimate meaning as grounded in the Triune God through the Incarnate Son.
