During the quarter we have reviewed a number of responses to suffering from a wide
variety of viewpoints. We have also noticed that suffering presents itself to us in three
different ways: (a) in our own lives; (b) in the experience of people we know and interact
with; and (c) in the experience of people in general-people we learn about but probably
never meet. We might call these first, second, and third person examples of suffering
suffering that happens to me, to you, to them. There are good reasons to believe that each
manifestation of suffering calls for a different response. Perhaps we could say these
three forms call us, respectively, to courage, to compassion, and to comprehension.
The purpose of the final exercise of the quarter is to give you the opportunity to
describe how you respond to each of these manifestations of suffering-your own
suffering; the suffering of those you meet personally, say, your clients or patients; the
suffering of others in the world around you.
Using the chart provided in class, notice the items you would place in the various
quadrants to develop your responses to these questions:
1. What convictions, or “fragments,” guide you in dealing with your own
suffering?
2. What will you do and say to sufferers you meet, personally and professionally?
3. What response do you have to the presence of suffering in the world? In other
words, what is your “theodicy,” how is it related to other responses to suffering
we have studied, what are its particular strengths, and what questions does it
leave unanswered?
Your paper should reflect both your familiarity with the material we have read and
discussed in class and your own constructive thinking. It should be 1000-1500 words in
length and should meet the formal and material criteria applicable to your other written
work.
DEVELOPING YOUR OWN PRACTICAL THEODICY
Their suffering: How do you
account for the presence of
suffering in the world?
What formal theodicies will you
draw from?
#3
What questions do these
theodicies leave you with?
#4
…….�
,]
My suffering: How do/will you
face your own suffering?
What “fragments,” or fundamental convictions do you bring
to the experience ofsuffering?
#1
Your suffering: What will you
say and do to respond to
people’s suffering?
How do/will you respond to
sufferers you meet, personally
and professionally?
#2
Chart
A SPECTRUM OF RESPONSES TO SUFFERING (THEODICIES)
This quarter we have examined a number of “theodicies.” Please use the scale to the right to indicate your personal
evaluation of each theodicy mentioned below. Then indicate the one that in your present opinion provides the best
resource among the options listed for responding to suffering.
Authors Label Responses to suffering Questions Value
Weak 7 stronf?
Joni Perfect plan God directly controls eve1ything that happens Does the world really have to have
Eareckson
theodicy in the world, suffering included, and his plan such massive amounts of suffering? If
Tada is perfect. Otherwise, he would not be the God is so powerful, why can’t he 1 2 3 4 5
sovereign Lord, and life in this world would fulfill his purposes with less
Divine be much worse than it is. suffe1ing? How could hon-endous
sovereignty evils be part ofa pe1fect master plan?
Augustine Free Will God gave ce1iain creatures freedom, and Doesn’t evil have to exist in order for
Defense some of them chose to rebel against him. creatures to be morally free? How
Alvin Since a free act is uncaused, the respon- could perfect creatures sin? Are the 1 2 3 4 5
Plantinga sibility for evil is theirs, not God’s. (God benefits of freedom worth the risk of
couldn’t give them freedom and then evil? Was sin inevitable? Could God
determine how they used it.) foresee the fall?
John Hick Soul-making Without challenges, the soul cannot grow. Is this soul-making program costtheodicy Consequently, the world we live in,
with all effective? Is there enough moral
Irenaeus its hazards and moral ambiguities, provides development tojustify the cost? Does 1 2 3 4 5
an ideal environment for character moral development require the
Character development. amount ofsuffering we see in the
development world? Is the soul-making project
succeeding? Are people reaching
moral peifection?
Ellen G. Cosmic Evil 01iginated in the sinful rebellion ofthe How much suffering is needed to
White
conflict highest created being and spread to humanity demonstrate that rebellion is pointless
Gregmy theodicy allows through evil theto fall continue of Adam inand order Eve. to convince God could and God anyone is worthy question
ofworship? How God’s 1 2 3 4 5
Boyd the entire on-looking universe that God’s goodness? Can the universe ever be
Great character is one of perfect love and infinite morally secure as long as there are
controversy goodness. genuinely free creatures?
Gregmy Openness Because it is God’s very nature to love, God Is God worthy ofworship unless he
Boyd
theodicy created beings with moral freedom, respects exercises complete control over
the decisions they make, is profoundly creation? Unless God’s control is 1 2 3 4 5
Clark affected by their experiences, and works for absolute, how can we account for
Pinnock Interactive the fulfilhnent ofhis purposes for them in biblical ideas of predestination,
God ways that honor their integrity. The future is prophecy and providence?
open in the sense that free decisions are not
John Sanders “there” until they are made.
Harold Finite God God has supreme power, but there are some Is a finite God trnly worthy of
Kushner
theodicy things that even God cannot do. While God worship? IfGod does not have the
is involved in every aspect of the world- power to intervene in the course of 1 2 3 4 5
Alfred N. sustaining, caring for, and influencing it- creaturely events, what hope is there
Whitehead God cannot interrupt or intervene in the that evil will ever be eradicated?
course of creaturely events. God cannot
Charles unilaterally cause things to happen.
Hartshorne
Fyodor Protest Every attempt to provide a rational If reality has no moral framework,
Dostoyevsky
theodicy framework in which evil fits will fail. There what basis is there for our outrage at
is no explanation for evil that accounts for human wickedness? Ifthings just 1 2 3 4 5
Albe11 the suffe1ing of innocent children. TI1e ve1y “happen” and that’s all, in what sense
Camus idea that there is one is offensive. is suffering bad? ls anything really
“better” than anything else?
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