The Cambridge Companion to the Problem of Evil by Meister Chad & Moser Paul K. & Chad Meister & Paul K. Moser

Author:Meister, Chad & Moser, Paul K. & Chad Meister & Paul K. Moser [Meister, Chad]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 2017-06-09T05:00:00+00:00

This of course is not the traditional program of theodicy, in which the goal is to produce explanations for God’s creation of a world containing evil; nevertheless, Swinton calls what he is offering a ‘theodicy’ in the attenuated sense that “it seeks to explore and respond to the problem of evil as it has been reframed.”49 The ‘reframing’ includes the replacement of theoretical explanation with practical resistance – specifically, “faithful practices of resistance that open up the possibility of transformation and redemption.”50 It is, indeed, by practising particular gestures of redemption that a (practical) solution or response to the problem of evil is attained. On this view, a successful solution to the problem of evil is one that helps people maintain their love of God despite their knowledge and experience of evil. In other words, a successful solution is one that resists evil, and in particular resists the capacity of evil to destroy faith, meaning, and hope. Importantly, these practices or gestures do not explain or justify evil, though they do “make a profound statement that evil does not need to have the final word.”51

Swinton singles out for extended discussion four Christian practices that form the basis of his practical theodicy: lament, forgiveness, thoughtfulness, and hospitality.52 By means of lament, for example, the victim gives voice to their anger and sorrow, in this way ‘naming the silences’ (as Hauerwas puts it) that suffering has created. But this takes place within the context of faith: the protest and rage against God are backgrounded by a broader horizon of faith and trust, where it is believed or hoped that God will overcome and redeem the evil. Thus, the endpoint of lament is not the mere expression of pain but reconciliation: the restoration of loving fellowship with God and others.

Even though Swinton is not, strictly speaking, an anti-theodicist, his ‘gestures of redemption’ can usefully be appropriated by the anti-theodicist to indicate how, contra Shearn, there are options available to the believer who wishes to dispense with theodicy but not with an essentially affirmative view of life. By responding to evil in the ways suggested by Swinton, the brokenness and hopelessness that result from evil and suffering may be overcome, making possible reconciliation with and a deeper love of God. In other words, healing and redemption are not ruled out by anti-theodicy and may in fact constitute the most crucial presuppositions of the anti-theodicy view. Here the idea of ‘eschatology’ becomes vital. John Hick liked to say, ‘No theodicy without eschatology’; following Hick, we may affirm: ‘No anti-theodicy without eschatology’. Swinton, too, emphasizes the importance of developing an ‘eschatological imagination’ when responding to the problem of evil, where this demands an appreciation for the great difference between ‘the way things are’ and ‘the way things ought to be, or will be’. Thus, an eschatological imagination is, according to Swinton,

a way of perceiving the world that is not bounded by assumptions about the way that things seem to be according to our present understanding. Eschatological

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.