Abstract

The principal objective of this study is to provide a new avenue by which to understand God and the problem of evil by employing the concept of Tao in the Taoist cannon, Tao Te Ching. In so doing, this study is centered on the reinterpretation of God and evil from the Taoist perspective. ;In the Taoist philosophy, Tao, as the ultimate reality, has bipolarity: yin and yang, and receptivity and creativity. This bipolarity creates a third factor, "relation," which creates a trinitarian relation--Tao, te, and wu-wei. ;The interrelationship of Tao, te, and wu-wei as well as the intrarelationship of that trinitarian structure is similar to those of the Christian trinity,--God the Creator, the Redeemer, and the Sustainer--not only in their anthropological approach, but also in their cosmological approach. In this trinitarian relation, each element functions as the principle of connection to the other two elements based on the yin-yang relation. However, in a Taoist theology, wu-wei completes the trinitarian structure. ;In a Taoist theology, as God the Spirit, wu-wei has both an ontological mode and an ethical mode , which appears as God's agape love in God's trinity--God's self-giving love in creation, God's self-sacrificing love in redemption, God's other-embracing love in sustenance--which represents God's self-emptying process. ;This inclusive and unifying vision of wu-wei helps one to deal with the problem of evil more directly and wholistically. First, good and evil are not the absolute substance, but a relative relation. Second, overcoming evil is not accomplished by enhancing good or inviting the absolute God, but by seeking the balance between good and evil. Third, the human task of tackling the problem of evil cannot be delayed to the future or until after death, but can be realized at the present moment. Fourth, wu-wei, in both its ontological and ethical modes, provides the metaphysical structure to handle the problem of evil theoretically as well as ethically