{"id":40776,"date":"2017-09-04T06:02:44","date_gmt":"2017-09-04T10:02:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/?p=40776"},"modified":"2017-09-06T08:19:49","modified_gmt":"2017-09-06T12:19:49","slug":"suffering-stupid-theology","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2017\/09\/suffering-stupid-theology.html","title":{"rendered":"Suffering and Stupid Theology"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"theodicy\"<\/p>\n

I was already planning to share this graph by cartoonist David Hayward<\/a>\u00a0well before Hurricane Harvey hit Texas, and even before my wife heard some Romanian pastors talking about what God\u2019s aim had been in causing the deaths of their children. It certainly reflects my own experience, but it is still worth stopping to ask\u00a0why<\/em> it should be the case that, as suffering gets worse, so too do the theological pronouncements that many people come up with. Is is simply that severe suffering highlights the inappropriateness of theological statements that are made all the time? Or does severe suffering actually puzzle and trouble many of us at such a deep level, and to such an extent, that we grasp at inane platitudes no matter how trite, not matter how hurtful, and no matter how much of a monster they suggest that God, and the person making them, must be? I suspect that it is probably a combination of both. What do readers of this blog think?<\/p>\n

The Christian Century<\/a><\/em> featured an article by Peter Marty recently, asking whether God causes our suffering. Here is an excerpt:<\/p>\n

The quick answer would be yes. Interpreting God\u2019s sovereignty to mean that God causes all circumstances to occur is a dangerous theological game to play. It turns people into passive subjects of a God who has a penchant for displaying power chaotically. Like marionettes dangling helplessly in thin air, we\u2019d be forced to move through life while a stage-managing God yanks our strings whenever God pleases. Scripture doesn\u2019t lend credence to this idea. Jesus never counsels people to accept their suffering as the Lord\u2019s will. God may work in inscrutable ways, but there\u2019s no evidence that God works in nonsensical ways.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Click through<\/a> to read the rest of that article.<\/p>\n

What are some of the worst and best responses to suffering that you have come across recently?<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I was already planning to share this graph by cartoonist David Hayward\u00a0well before Hurricane Harvey hit Texas, and even before my wife heard some Romanian pastors talking about what God\u2019s aim had been in causing the deaths of their children. It certainly reflects my own experience, but it is still worth stopping to ask\u00a0why it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":40777,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[100],"tags":[2484,12023,12497,12508],"class_list":["post-40776","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-theodicy","tag-david-hayward","tag-suffering","tag-theodicy","tag-theology"],"yoast_head":"\nSuffering and Stupid Theology<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I was already planning to share this graph by cartoonist David Hayward\u00a0well before Hurricane Harvey hit Texas, and even before my wife heard some Romanian\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2017\/09\/suffering-stupid-theology.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Suffering and Stupid Theology\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I was already planning to share this graph by cartoonist David Hayward\u00a0well before Hurricane Harvey hit Texas, and even before my wife heard some Romanian\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2017\/09\/suffering-stupid-theology.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Religion Prof: The Blog of James F. 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