In our lessons on atheism and post-modernism, my Year 12 class has been looking at reasons for the rise of atheism, and one of these is the problem of evil. Put simply, this is difficulty of reconciling the evil and suffering we see around us with the religious claim that an all-powerful, all-loving God exists: if such a God really did exist, wouldn't he act to prevent evil?
Kevin Brown of the blog Diglotting has written this useful post on different theodicies, or religious attempts to resolve the problem of evil.
Of particular interest for looking at modern responses the problem of evil, is his outline of Jürgen Moltmann's theodicy, which arose from Moltmann's experience of the suffering which occurred during World War 2 (Moltmann was a soldier in the German army). Brown writes:
[I]nstead of focusing upon the traditional theodicy question of “Why does God allow evil”, Moltmann instead concentrates on a corollary: “Where is God in the midst of all this suffering?” He finds the answer in Jesus’ death cry: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Mark 15.34)...
Furthermore, in Moltmann’s theodicy, the cross is not just the suffering of the man Jesus, nor merely the ‘death of God’, but it is also death in God. God takes up suffering and death into himself and then overcomes it on Resurrection Sunday through the limitless divine life.
'Furthermore, in Moltmann’s theodicy, the cross is not just the suffering of the man Jesus, nor merely the ‘death of God’, but it is also death in God. God takes up suffering and death into himself and then overcomes it on Resurrection Sunday through the limitless divine life.'
ReplyDeleteThat paragraph doesn't mean anything.
By the way, I've just learned that the chairman of the Cyprus Bank is solving his countries financial problems by burying all his countries money in his garden this evening, and digging it up on Sunday morning.
The meaning of the passage seems fairly clear to me, though if you need further explanation it might be better to post a comment on diglotting as I'm no expert on Moltmann. The link to the original passage is above.
ReplyDeleteIt doesn't mean anything at all. It is just Christian word salad.
ReplyDeleteI was today diagnosed with terminal cancer.
I asked the doctor if he could cure me.
He said he could me easily, but he wouldn't. What he would do, to show how much he loved me, is to give his son cancer and then cure him.
I felt cheered up straightaway.