The Surplus of Evil in Welfare Society • Risto Saarinen 131 The Surplus of Evil in Welfare Society: Contemporary Scandinavian Crime Fiction By Risto Saarinen Abstract: The best-selling Scandinavian crime fiction of the last ten years extensively deals with the problem of remaining evil in a peaceful and just welfare society. It develops a view of “secular theodicy” which aims at explaining the presence of radical evil in a secular late modern society. In this explanation it employs the Lutheran imagery of “hidden God” (Deus absconditus). The paper reviews recent novels by Henning Mankell, Anne Holt, Sven Westerberg, Helena von Zweigbergk and Anna Jansson. Key Terms: Crime Fiction, Theodicy, Lutheranism, Welfare State, hidden God At the closing banquet of the recent meeting “The ous politicians. On the other hand, artists and film Future of Lutheran Theology” in Aarhus, Denmark, makers such as Ingmar Bergman (Sweden), Lars von an American Lutheran professor described the Danish Trier (Denmark) and Aki Kaurismäki (Finland) have society as follows: “Many Americans have felt that the often looked behind the welfare curtain and found social justice of our dreams has come true in Den- that the niceness and good will present in these peaceful mark. The streets are safe and clean, everybody seems societies has its shadow side. In the most popular Scan- to have decent clothing, healthy food and a nice dinavian fiction of the last ten years, that is, in crime home.” fiction, the dark side and particularly the society’s in- This description aptly corresponds to the North- ability to understand radical evil, plays a prominent ern European self-understanding. Throughout the role. It is my aim to describe this literary genre some- 20th century, Scandinavians have tried to build a wel- what closer. fare society which provides a good living standard for The contemporary popularity of Scandinavian the middle class and a strong social safety net for all murder mysteries in the largest European book mar- weak and non-privileged. Many investigations and kets, especially Germany and France, continues to have political elections continue to give the result that the astonishing proportions. The best-selling Swedish Scandinavians are willing to pay high taxes in order to crime author, Henning Mankell, has sold over 15 mil- preserve this advanced level of social welfare for all lion books which have been translated into 35 lan- members of the society. guages. His nine-volume detective series, whose hero is a melancholic Swedish policeman Wallander, has The Social Criticism of Best-Selling dominated the top ten book lists in Germany for years Crime Authors and is perhaps beginning to do so in the English-speak- ing countries as well. In the preface to the last, or latest, volume of This ideology is in Sweden called folkhemmet, the com- Wallander series, Pyramiden (The Pyramid, 1999), mon home of all folks. It is seldom questioned by seri- Risto Saarinen is professor of ecumenical theology at the University of Helsinki, Finland. He is author of several theological books, such as Faith and Holiness: Lutheran-Orthodox Dialogue 1959-1994 (Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1997) and one volume of fiction (a novel in Finnish, 1999). 132 Dialog: A Journal of Theology • Volume 42, Number 2 • Summer 2003 Mankell describes the overall message of his crime sto- Emptiness ries as follows: He is concerned with the future of Swedish democracy and with the social justice. His It is clear that with this question the problems related books should have as their subtitle: tales of Swedish to God and theodicy also come to the focus of atten- uneasiness. Mankell’s literary Swedes worry about the tion. No less than three of the most recent best-sell- future of their society amidst the threat of massive ing Swedish crime novels have the word “God” in their criminality and social unrest. title. Before describing these works closer we should Mankell is pointing at the vulnerability of notice that they are not theological or explicitly reli- folkhemmet. While he develops this idea in a narrative gious novels. “God” is for these murder mysteries a and best-selling fashion, some other crime authors have symbol of absence and emptiness. The books outline attempted to identify the same uneasiness in a more a secular theodicy that asks: si Deus non est, unde programmatic and a more literary manner. In her six- malum? A late modern translation of this would be: if volume crime novel series, Anne Holt, a prominent there is no God, how can we cope with evil? Scandina- politician and Norway’s minister of justice 1996-1997, vian societies are, paradoxically, both the most Luth- describes the blind violence present in the middle of eran and the most secular late modern societies. People abundance and social security provided by Norway’s do not speak about God and they honestly believe oil income. Her novel Demonens död (The Devil’s that all goodness is built with the resources of tax Death, 1995) tells the story of 12-year old Olav. money and through the morals of individual people This boy has been taken from his immature and working in fair and uncorrupted structures. alcoholic mother and is put into the care of good edu- The tacit presupposition of this ideology is that cators at a children’s home. Despite of all good will of we can remove all evil through producing political competent social caretakers the hyperactive Olav is justice, fair treatment of individuals and sufficient fi- portrayed as a completely disgusting and repulsive nancial resources. If this does not happen, however, a child to the extent that nobody can be sympathetic to problem of “secular theodicy” emerges. Why does there him. In the context of a murder mystery taking place remain so much evil in spite of everybody’s best in- at the children’s home Anne Holt asks the question: tentions? God or religion cannot be blamed, because how can it be that all our social investment is of no in a secular welfare society God plays no political role. help in confronting the seemingly radical evil present Scandinavian social democracy thus creates its own, in this little boy? The welfare society and the secular problem of evil. folkhemmet ideology provides no answer to this ques- It is this secular theodicy which is indicated with tion. the symbolical name of “God” in the contemporary Demonens död sold over 100,000 copies in Nor- murder mysteries. The secular presence of evil is there- way alone and it got the most prominent domestic fore described as the absence of God by the authors book prize in 1995. One characteristic of recent Scan- who do not aim at describing God or religion at all. dinavian crime literature is that it attempts to be seri- Sven Westerberg’s novel Guds fruktansvärda frånvaro ous literature while reaching large audiences at the (The Terrible Absence of God, 1999) got the prize of same time. A major reason of Holt’s and Mankell’s best Swedish crime book in 1999. Its story is told by popularity is that their readers are also pondering the a woman working as forensic psychiatrist. Her family so-called “surplus of evil”, that is, the problem why life is nice and orderly, but in her work she meets the we still meet so much unexplained badness and trag- chaos of the surrounding world. In the story she treats edy in spite of our best efforts to build up a just wel- a depressive young man who is accused of murdering fare society which takes care for the poorest and the his professor at the university. Slowly she finds that most mistreated. the truth behind the murder is much more compli- cated than the police forces think. More important than this plot is, however, the in- God as Symbol Facing the Secular ner world of the psychiatrist. In continuous inner The Surplus of Evil in Welfare Society • Risto Saarinen 133 monologues she wonders about order and chaos, luck are fully taken into account. and unhappiness, health and tragic illnesses. She feels On the surface, Zweigbergk’s novel is a whodunnit, that the contemporary Swedish society is character- but the real question is: why can’t we offer any real ized by the terrible absence of God. This expression is therapy to the people and improve their lives? The not theological, but denotes the final incapability of therapist, the criminal, the victim and their relatives persons to create a safe place where we can live in bal- all remain in the state of puzzled anxiety. The ance. Religious belief is of no help in this situation: whodunnit behind the explicit plot is thus asking: devotional literature seems very strange in the eye of who has done the things that our good God did not this secular psychiatrist. On the other hand, without see or foresee? God the secular world only offers the riddle of point- One must add that Westerberg and Zweigbergk less suffering. have occasional optimism in their books. Their char- Many Scandinavian authors of previous generations acters can see glimpses of light in some individual con- accused narrow-minded religiosity for conflicts and tacts. Sometimes they may even have some good pros- intolerance. The contemporary authors, however, claim pects in life. But the picture of the society as a whole that modernist liberal tolerance does no better in of- remains rather hopeless. fering social welfare. The welfare state is helpless in A somewhat different, less philosophical and more facing the radical evil expressed by brutal crime and entertaining, approach is offered in Anna Jansson’s book tragic life histories of the criminals.