Book Review: Blameless in Abaddon
In my first post on this blog, I reviewed the novel Towing Jehovah by James Morrow. That novel quickly became my favorite novel ever (a distinction that I don’t bestow easily); however, I was anxious to read the other two novels in the trilogy: Blameless in Abaddon and The Eternal Footman. That being said, much of my enthusiasm for reading the novels moved down my priorities list with the birth of my son a few weeks ago, so I’m just now finishing book two of the trilogy. This is my review.
The theme of the novel, written around the trial of God for crimes against humanity, can be summed up with two separate passage. The first, spoken to the man defending God–Lovett–by the “Idea of Yeshua” (you’ll have to read the book to understand that fully), talks about how God should be worshipped:
Theodicy’s a sucker’s game, Professor. When Yahweh was operational, humanity’s obligation wasn’t to worship Him, for chrissakes. It was to celebrate His creativity and stand forevermore against His malice. And anybody such as yourself, anybody who sought to shoehorn an omnibenevolent God into the same universe as Auschwitz…that person, Dr. Gregory Francis Lovett–that person did the Devil’s work for him (page 391).
The other, spoken to Martin Candle–the novel’s protagonist who puts God on trial for crimes against humanity–again by the “Idea of Yeshua” deals with dwelling on the negative aspects in the world. Truth be told, I needed to read this three years ago; I’ve come to peace with it now:
In your own way, you’re as sorry a phenomenon as Lovett here. Bitterness is not a philosophy, friend. Outrage is not an ethic. Stop counting corpses and reach a truce with the universe, or you’ll be stuck on the dung heap forever (page 392).
These two passages come after Lovett and Candle grapple in the Hague over the problem of evil and the possible solutions for it. For those unfamiliar with the problem of evil, it basically says:
- An all powerful, all knowing, and all good God would prevent evil.
- Evil exists.
- Therefore, God, as defined above, does not exist.
Lovett, the defender of God (who, indisputably, does exist in the novel because He fell from heaven into the ocean in Towing Jehovah), offers several possible explanations for this contradiction:
- “The Hidden Harmony” Defense: Candle calls this the “father knows best” defense. It says that we can’t know what God knows, so evil is His way of balancing the universe in a sort of “harmony.”
- “The Eschatological” Defense: Candle calls this “the Disneyland” defense. It says that no matter what we endure in this life, we will be rewarded in the afterlife; therefore, evil is just a time to pass before our entrance into paradise. Lawrence, the ram sacrificed by Abraham in lieu of his son Isaac, dismantles this defense with this deft analogy:
- “The Disciplinary” Defense: this defense says that evil is all a retribution or “punishment” for human sin. Like John Hagee (an endorsment McCain was happy with–I had to make that point
) who suggested that Hurricane Katrina was a punishment for the sins of New Orleans. I don’t think there’s a lot of need to refute this ridiculous claim. People with a brain can see the flaws. - “The Ontological” Defense: Candle calls this “The Swiss Cheese” defense. It says that a fully functional, dynamic universe must ipso facto have flaws. These flaws are the cause of evil in the world. Candle struggles to find a solution for this one, and he doesn’t solve it until the end, which I won’t give away.
A father doesn’t have the right to sexually molest his children throughout the winter simply because he intends to take them to Disneyland in the spring (page 172).
This novel does an excellent job of explaining the basic tenets of theodicy in a way that is accessible and fun to read. Morrow’s trenchant wit bleeds through the story like God’s massive hemmorage through the streets of the Netharlands (oops, that’s a spoiler!), and in his biting satire, he takes on the religious apologists and the skeptics just as he did in Towing Jehovah. Overall, I’m not quite sure what to say about this novel except that I enjoyed it immensly and learned a lot. I can’t say that its as good as its predecessor, but it’s close. Definitely worth the time to explore.
