Christianity: The Role Of Suffering In Our World

The existence of pain and suffering in a world created by a good and almighty God is a fundamental theological dilemma and may be the most serious objection to the Christian religion. In the book, The Problem Of Pain , author C.S. Lewis addresses the issue of pain as a mere problem that demands a solution; he formulates it and goes about solving it. "If God were good, He would make His creatures perfectly happy, and if He were almighty He would be able to do what He wished. But the creatures are not happy. Therefore God lacks either goodness, or power, or both" (p. 16). According to Lewis, this is the problem of pain in its simplest form. In his attempt to solve the problem of pain Lewis evaluates the past and the origin of religion, he

We have the two laws, the Law of nature and the law of human nature or moral law. Two world views discussed are the “Life-force” philosophy, an overall creator, or “Creative evolution”, which holds that any variation on this planet evolved from a life-force. You would have to dig deeper to see if they mean one with a mind.

The most significant period of suffering I have gone through was when I lost my grandfather. I remember we had celebrated his 50th birthday never did imagine it would be the last. That horrible news impacts my life forever realizing that we don’t count for a tomorrow. His death was suddenly due to an embolism. His death caused me a lot of suffering because he was not sick and we had made a lot of plans. I did not know how to deal with his death because I was heartbroken. I wonder and questioned if maybe only God had given us a warning. I did not know how to manage my grief and mourned for him because I was angry with God. It took me time to understand that it was God’s will and that his soul had returned to God. I learned that his death of the body was not the end of his life (Rubin & Yasien-Esmael, 2004). I found comfort in the midst of suffering by finding acceptance in God. Also, I found praying for him and sharing my suffering with others helped me console my pain. I learn that “the lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit,” which help my relationship with God grow as my pain slowly vanished.

The book is neither meant to be a theological treatise nor an academic exposition but a toolkit to unleash human potentials; a resource for intervention in dealing with human life hurts and as a channel of Gods healing and liberation through Jesus Christ.

Suffering joins people closer to Christ and his sufferings, especially in persecution (1 Pet. 4:1-2, 12-16, 19; 5:8-10; Luke 9:23; Phil. 3:10).

Romans 5:3-4 points out how suffering only grows us closer to Christ through a transformation of character and realization of the fact that our hope is in him no matter the circumstance.

From what I know, Planet Earth consists of seven continents. Collectively, those seven continents are home to approximately seven billion humans. And each human has their own unique worldview. Defined as, the bias or presumption a person holds as a result of the environment, culture, or faith they live in, worldview influences how everyone responds to life’s pertinent questions. (A Christian Worldview?) Throughout this paper, I intend to give a description of my own worldview, answering what I believe about God, creation, humankind, epistemology, and ethics. Whilst comparing my worldview to that of O. Henry's illustrated in the short story "The Ransom of Red Chief".

I believe suffering results from our separation from God. He is holy, all-powerful, all-loving, all that is good. Each day I find myself doing things that move me away from Him. Every time I sin, the world becomes a little bit worse. I can do no good thing apart from God. The more I separate myself from Him, the more likely I am to cause someone else harm or pain.

Why humans suffer and where God is during it are theological questions that have constantly been debated on. Rabbi Kushner in the PBS video Suffering: A Time to Love and a Time to Hate, John F. Haught in his book Responses to 101 Questions on God and Evolution, and the Bible each provide their own analysis on where God is when humans are suffering and persecuted. Thomas West is his chapter “The Human Response of Hope” gives his insight regarding life after death especially hope for salvation. All these sources aid in answering personal questions regarding theodicy: suffering, death, and hope.

Poverty is prevalent in our world today and has been prevalent in our world throughout history. Many leaders have tried to “eradicate” poverty, but on many levels it seems improbable. Many politicians have taken all of the wrong steps in the war on poverty. They have created a permanent class of dependency. The Christian worldview is quite different in the way that it approaches the war on poverty and how it views the welfare system of the modern world.

Some may say that suffering doesn’t help, it only hurts, but in reality, it does help, it helps you mold you into the person you are today. One way this is shown is through the suffering of people throughout history. If you look back at groups of people throughout history you can see how suffering has changed and in cases improved conditions. Something else is that suffering really can change a person’s character and help them develop credibility.

Due to the "highly subjective nature of most scientific theorizing... [we should] let the Bible speak for itself and modify our scientific view of origins accordingly." (as cited in Downey, D., & Porter, S., 2009).

your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the

Our experiences of suffering may also help us in our moral conduct as an experience of suffering serves to make us sympathetic to the trials of others. We learn to a) help the afflicted (through consolation and relief) and to B) not inflict harm on others, having experienced suffering ourselves. Furthermore, many spiritual seekers in the past have felt that suffering and spiritual progress are inexorably linked, pointing to St Teresa of Avila and St Francis of AssisiI as examples . I believe that if we can learn from our

Christians that devoutly abstained form worldly pleasures were known as ascetic christians. These christians recognized a distinct difference between the body and the soul. Early ascetic christians privileged the soul over the body because the body was a symbol of mortality and sin, while the soul was a symbol of spirituality and salvation. Therefore, ascetic christians imposed suffering on their bodies and renounced pleasure in order to draw closer to the divine nature of God by strengthening the soul. These sufferings included abstaining from sex, giving up material goods, and fasting. Different levels of sufferings were experienced by ascetic christians and the audience of the works factored into the levels suffering described in our readings. The suffering of christians written for ascetic christians that were wealthy was vastly different than that of ascetic christians that simply wanted to become extreme ascetics or “better” christians.