Summary Of Chapter 9: Why Is There So Much Suffering

In the chapter,”The Crucified God of Compassion”, Elizabeth Johnson outlines different types of suffering that ocuurs in the world and how God plays a part in their suffering. The Holocaust is the first topic outlined in this chapter. As knowledge of the incomprehensible Holocaust spread many questions about God were asked, however Christian Theologians no longer asked why God allows suffering to happen but rather “Where is God?” (Johnson 2007,p.51). They wanted to know where God was during all the pain and suffering.

but he allowed us to chase after the things that our human hearts wanted. God allowed suffering in our world because he gave us free will, and with the free will that we have we chose to seek knowing evil (Hiles & Smith, 2014). 4. Imagine that a close friend has just suffered through a great personal loss (death of a loved one, natural disaster, disease, job loss, divorce, or a broken relationship) and your friend asks you why God would let such a terrible thing happen. How would you respond to your

John Hick argues in this writing that the all-powerful, all-knowing, and all-good Christian god is compatible with an abundance of suffering. He offers solutions to the problem of suffering which relies heavily upon a tripartite foundation. Hick divides evil into two: Moral Evil = the evil that human being cause - either to themselves or to each other. And Non-Moral Evil = the evil that is not caused by human activity - natural disasters, etc. He tries to explain that a world without pain and suffering, moral traits such as courage, patience and sympathy would not be developed.

For example, in the Bible, followers are taught to obey God’s teachings and that God has already set up a plan for us as shown in these quotes from Galatians 5:16-17 and Proverbs 16:9, respectively: “So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires from the flesh. For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want,” and “In their hearts humans plan their course, but the Lord establishes their steps.” In these quotes, it is almost clear that although humans have some kind of free will, it is all in the end attributed to God. However, it is important to note that one Christian philosopher, Mortimer J. Adler, was able to find and identify three main kinds of freedom found in the Bible.

One of the hardest questions to answer is “Why does God allow people to suffer? Christians believe that even though there is much suffering in the world, there is even more goodness.”. C.S. Lewis once said the “problem of pain,” is atheism’s best argument against Christianity. These findings are so potent that the Bible even states: “The fool hath said in his heart, there is no God” (Psalm 14:1). The majority of atheists, excluding any proper evidence, “must resort finally to philosophical objections”.

Many of the choices we make, using our free will, lead to suffering. We participate in risky behavior, without thinking of the consequences. For example, people that smoke have greater chances of developing health problem (e.g., cancer), which results in pain and suffering. This type of suffering is caused by our errors and mistakes. Many of the choice we make have consequences, but is it is impossible to live in a way in which we do not take risks. Furthermore, God's existence comes from intellect and not the sense, but suffering is felt through through our senses, whether it be external or internal pain. Suffering is adventitious and not

What is “freewill”? Freewill is the ability for us and only us as humans to control our faith and to a certain extent, our destiny. Without the attribute of freewill our lives would become very simple and meaningless, with no end goal to our lives. Did God create suffering so we could choose between good and evil? As children of God, He gave us the power of freewill at birth, whether to be upright or malicious. He gave us the choice to be blissful and go to Heaven or to sin and suffer then go to Hell. Suffering is a key component in every aspect of freewill. Without suffering freewill would not exist. There needs to be consequences for every action we take throughout our lives, without consequences our lives would be pre-determined and extremely

This passage best accounts on the reasoning that God is not the creator of pain and suffering. He made humans in his own image to do good and rule over the fishes of the sea, birds of the skies and to domesticate plants and crops. He also gave humans free will to make their own decisions, for we can experience the greatest amount of love. But with this, he did give us a mission to spread his kingdom, and follow his words. As time began to pass, humans turned away from God's mission and love, and now as a result created suffering and pain for

After careful analysis of all three literary pieces, evidently, suffering is constructed as an opportunity to obtain spiritual redemption as a result of trust in God and to deliver one’s self from current and future suffering. However, on a much larger and broader scale, the three writings in general summarize a core belief from the Bible: “When the righteous cry for help, the Lord hears and delivers them out of all their troubles(Moses, Psalm 34:17). When the deserving Christians are in a bad position and trust God to help, they will be spiritually

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

Author explained in his sermon why God allows Tragedy and suffering in .... He said that God did not create suffering; mankind did. God gave us free will in order for us to truly love Him, but mankind decided to turn away from Him. When humans rebelled, sin entered the earth and corrupted nature and human morality. We are the ones who choose whether we sin or not, and that creates an effect resulting in a tragedy or a blessing.

The problem of evil has been around since the beginning. How could God allow such suffering of his “chosen people”? God is supposedly all loving (omni-benevolent) and all powerful (omnipotent) and yet He allows His creations to live in a world of danger and pain. Two philosophers this class has discussed pertaining to this problem is B.C. Johnson and John Hick. Johnson provides the theists’ defense of God and he argues them. These include free will, moral urgency, the laws of nature, and God’s “higher morality”. Hick examines two types of theodicies – the Augustinian position and the Irenaeus position. These positions also deal with free will, virtue (or moral urgency), and the laws of nature. Johnson

Many people would like to believe that God has a good reason for making them suffer, but Kushner argues that such a theology doesn't reconcile the goodness of God with the existence of evil. Lastly, some people try to explain suffering by believing that it comes to liberate humans from a world of pain and lead them to a better place. "Sometimes in our reluctance to admit that there is unfairness in the world, we try to persuade ourselves that what has happened is not really bad. We only think it is" (p. 27). In the end, this explanation attempts to work by denying the existence of evil altogether. Kushner finds these responses to suffering unsatisfying, because they assume that God is the cause of human suffering and they attempt to comprehend why God would want humans to suffer. The reasoning behind these justifications of suffering is that it is punishment deserved, it is for one's own good, or God does not care about what happens to people. Kushner recognizes that these rationales can cause people to blame themselves, can lead to a denial of reality, or cause the repression of one's feelings. Because of this, Kushner attempts to create his own reasoning for why bad things happen to good people.

If God loves us, why does He allow us to suffer? The central question in Shadowlands challenges traditional religious and moral conventions. It is a question asked by many, with few satisfactory answers. Before attempting to answer the question, and explore its relationship to Shadowlands, let us first define the question, so its implications may be more clearly understood. At the heart of the question is a doubt in the goodness of God, "If God loves us". From the beginning it is clear that God is being judged and criticized by the question. Then the second phrase follows"Why does He allow us to suffer?". The assumption made in the second phrase is that God has enough control over the world to prevent suffering. If He can prevent

Why Does God allow suffering? This question is probably as old as religion itself. It is a stumbling block for some of us, and for many more at given moments of tragedy. There are as many answers to this question as there are people who care to engage in theological dialogue. One understanding is that yes, God allows "bad" things to happen; God does not cause them to happen.