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Natural Evil and the Love of God

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 October 2008

Diogenes Allen
Diogenes Allen
Affiliation:
Professor of Philosophy, Princeton Theological Seminary
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Extract

There is some important data which has not as yet found its way into philosophic discussions on the problem of evil. Some religious people report that suffering, instead of being contrary to the love of God, is actually a medium in and through which his love can be experienced. This looks highly paradoxical, but it will be our purpose to show that it is intelligible and that it has important consequences for philosophical discussions of the problem of evil.

Type
Articles
Information
Religious Studies , Volume 16 , Issue 4 , December 1980 , pp. 439 - 456
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1980

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References

page 439 note 1 Arrian's Discourses of Epictetus, trans. Oldfather, W. A., 2 vols. (London: Heinemann and New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1928), I. VI. I.Google Scholar

page 441 note 1 Hume, David, Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion, ed. Smith, N. K. (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1947), p. 210.Google Scholar

page 441 note 2 Ibid. p. 211.

page 444 note 1 Ray Lindquist, ‘Common Life’.

page 445 note 1 Sister Basilea Schlink founded soon after World War II a Protestant order of nuns, the Marimchwestern, with its home base near Darmstadt, West Germany. She has a series of such aphorisms printed on individual cards, as well as several books on the spiritual life, including accounts of the specific benefits of illness.

page 445 note 2 See Weil, Simone, The Need for Roots (New York: Harper & Row, 1971), pp. 283–302Google Scholar. Also see Barfoot, Edith, ‘The Joyful Vocation to Suffering’, reprinted in The Witness of Edith Barfoot (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1977Google Scholar). Edith Barfoot spent seventy of her eighty-seven years in suffering: rheumatoid arthritis successively deprived her of movement, eyesight, and ultimately hearing.

In order to prevent a possible serious misunderstanding, it should be noted that those we are citing were (are) not quietists. Schlink is, and Weil was, extremely active in seeking to alleviate and prevent suffering, and to improve human life and social institutions.

page 446 note 1 Weil, Simone, Waiting on God (Glasgow: Collins, 1959), pp. 35–6.Google Scholar

page 446 note 2 Weil, , Need for Roots, pp. 282–3.Google Scholar

page 447 note 1 See Madden, E. H. and Hare, P. H., Evil and the Concept of God (Springfield, Ill.: Charles C. Thomas, 1968), especially pp. 3–4, 12–17Google Scholar. They argue this point of view very well. Cf my article, ‘Motives, Rationales, and Religious Beliefs’, American Philosophical Quarterly (April 1966), pp. III–27Google Scholar, which anticipates and replies to this position.

page 447 note 2 Weil, Simone, ‘The Love of God and Affliction’, in On Science, Necessity and the Love of God (London: Oxford University Press, 1968Google Scholar). The first half of this essay can also be found in Waiting on God. For a presentation and discussion of the relevant texts see Borocco, Claude, ‘Le Malheur chez Simone Weil’, Cahiers Simone Weil (Sept. 1978), pp. 18–29.Google Scholar

page 450 note 1 Through the Father, Jesus can command nature as, for example, when he stilled the stormy sea and walked on water. But of himself, in the New Testament accounts he is subject to the forces of gravity, to the need to eat, and to death.

page 453 note 1 Reprinted in many places, including Philosophy of Religion, ed. Mitchell, Basil (London: Oxford University Press, 1971), pp. 13–15.Google Scholar

page 453 note 2 Ibid. p. 15.

page 454 note 1 Hick, John, Evil and the God of Love (New York: Harper & Row, 1966).Google Scholar

page 455 note 1 Reprinted in Philosophy of Religion, ed. Mitchell, Basil, pp. 97–100.Google Scholar