Evils of Optimistic Panentheism

Theologians have described Sergius Bulgakov as one of the greatest theologians of the 20th century. Bulgakov is an ‘optimistic panentheist,’ someone who embraces a combination of panentheist metaphysics and an optimistic attitude that God’s eschatological will (an essential desire of God) will necessarily be accomplished in the future, when all evil will be eliminated. This paper fleshes out a practical problem affecting ‘optimistic’ versions of panentheism like Bulgakov’s, using Bulgakov’s own views as an example. Not only is there no good way for panentheists to infer that God’s essentially good nature or desires (such as an essentially good will) will ultimately ‘win out’ over the bad consequences of His nature or desires, but their view implies that God only allows evil because its possibility is a metaphysically necessary consequence of God’s essence or desires. As God’s essence is eternally the same, it cannot then be that evil ceases to be so necessary at any point in God’s life. In sum, we will defend the conclusion that ‘pessimism’ is the only coherent position for panentheists to take, given their metaphysical commitments. Moreover, we will conclude by generalizing these insights to panentheism generally and Christian panentheism particularly.