“The Best of All Possible Worlds”
Christians believe that ours is The Best of All Possible Worlds, an idea that comes to us from Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, the man who discovered calculus around the same time as Newton did. In this essay, Michael Dirda reviews a book by the same name, The Best of All Possible Worlds: A Story of Philosophers, God, and Evil by Steven Nadler. The questions behind that phrase are, Did God make evil? Why does evil exist? If God is good, why do bad things happen? These questions are simplistic, but completely realistic, too.
The attempt to justify the ways of God to men — theodicy, a term coined by Leibniz — lies at the heart of the matter: “Why is there any evil at all in God’s creation?” Essentially, Leibniz’s answer is: Consider the whole [...] As Nadler emphasizes, summarizing Leibniz, “all things are connected and every single aspect of the world makes a contribution to its being the best world.”
That includes what we call evil.
However, Leibniz offers no explanation of just how evil assists the overall goodness of things. (Sometimes he even seems to suggest that it serves to bring the good into greater relief.) We cannot penetrate so far into the Creator’s mind or plan. Still “it is inconceivable . . . that an infinitely good and perfect God could choose anything less than the best.” This conclusion may satisfy a devout Christian philosopher, but it offers scant consolation when we are in pain, or see the wicked succeed and the worthy fail, or when we face death.
True, true, but it’s heartening that this question still fires the imagination of people who write books and review them and read them. That’s enough proof, for now, that the world still has something good in it.




WORLD Magazine Library powered by Amazon
Term Life Insurance at Savings up to 75%!
Logos Bible Software for Bible Study
Learn it! Speak it! Live it!



















back to top8 Comments to ““The Best of All Possible Worlds””
Why does man crave justice?
Report comment as offensive
What? Whoever said it is a Christian belief that this is the best of all possible worlds? Which catechism is that in? Citations? Sources prior to Leibniz in 1710?
Pangloss ran around saying so in Voltaire’s Candide, but that was a satire….
Report comment as offensive
In the Spinoza vs Leibniz dispute, I’ll take Spinoza
read the Courtier and the Heretic
Report comment as offensive
Best of All Possible Worlds
Candide ruined that term for me. Now all I can think of is that story.
I prefer to think of it as the world God has chosen for his own reasons. That gets the issue of sovereignty out in front where it belongs.
But the same world that is filled with seemingly meaningless human suffering (a la Candide) also contains the cross. They go together.
Report comment as offensive
The cross-as-remedy is not too far removed from Candide’s ameliorative gardening. There is shared imagery in the seed that “dies”, is buried, and produces life. Voltaire didn’t dream that spilled drops of blood make Good Friday’s lovely flowers, but he thought the gardener’s drops of sweat make a practical contribution to the world.
What a wonderful book — one of the best there is, I think.
Report comment as offensive
This is not the best of all possible worlds.
It is the fallen, ruined world that is largely in rebellion against God. Our first parents rejected the best of all possible worlds.
As MIM implies, there would be no discussion of why there is evil in the world without a God-created and God-driven desire for goodness and justice. In the world of the atheist, the terms “good” and “evil” have no objective meaning. What is, is.
The “problem of evil” is mostly a poor excuse used by lazy people already determined to reject God.
Report comment as offensive
Candide’s sarcasm is just a bit too thick for me. Although my historical mind loved the Lisbon earthquake reference.
Kyle - good point.
Report comment as offensive
And the Seven Years War, too!
Report comment as offensive