I'm in the midst of finishing up my class on Suffering, Tragedy and the Christian Faith. We've come to the point where, before us, is the question of the practicality of a theodicy. Stumbling across a quote in my readings this morning, I've remained invariably unsettled by it: No statement, theological or otherwise, should be made that would not be credible in the presence of burning children. The quote was referenced after an example of the suffering that occured in Auschwitz.
You can easily see the implications of this statement: The need for theodicy seems to be obviated. I recalled the chapter from The Brothers Karamazov where Ivan brings this issue to the forefront as well. It's extremely unsettling because there's no "practical" answer. There are, of course, theoretical ones, but this, in cases like these, is highly unsatisfactory.
Perhaps this is too lugubrious for Monday morning. It will serve you to note, that while I remain unsettled, I do not remain shaken -- only intrigued and reminded that there are times when theodicy "needs to be silent". That theodicy needs to take into account such a quote. It needs to remain grounded and realistic -- or at least have that sense about such things.
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One must counter that history is again repeating itself in the persistence of the Iranian president who denies that the Holocaust took place. And such a view is the problem of evil, its repetiveness towards a descent into the banality of man when all souls are devoid of truth. Evil is real and a mystery that permeates like a dark night in all things taking away any hope. But the answer, and the only viable one that exists is the Cross, where the culminating forces of evil met for an apparent victory and lost to a suffering King who died for all...
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