THE PROBLEM OF PAIN

1. THE PROBLEM OF PAIN The Scream, E. Munch, http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/munch/

2. THEODICIES-Hubert G. Locke“I believe- help my unbelief” Problem of Pain 6

3. THEODICIES: Locke • “Whenever I try to grapple with these three experiences- death, race, and the Holocaust or the Shoah (the preferable term for the murder of the Jews)- from the perspective of conventional Christian teaching, I find myself inclined toward skepticism regarding many of the claims and assurances of the Christian faith.” Searching for God, viii Problem of Pain 6

4. THEODICIES: Locke • For Locke, what is important in matters of faith is “personal conviction.” SfG, ix • “What I was not prepared for was the extent to which I wandered, in the aftermath of my mother’s death, between certainty and doubt. . . . I could not repress my doubts about that promise of immortality. How could I recite the phrase in the Creed, ‘I believe in . . . The resurrection of the body,’ when the sight of her lifeless corpse was still so fresh in my mind?” SfG, 3 Problem of Pain 6

5. THEODICIES: Locke • Locke argues that there are many inconsistencies in biblical teaching on the resurrection and immortality. SfG, 8 • “But stress can produce the opposite result as well; it is often under conditions of strain and distress that one sees most clearly what is true and important about life- in this case, that it is not bound by the limitations of this mortal realm or, as the philosophers and theologians would put it, by the threat of non-being.” SfG, 9 Problem of Pain 6

6. THEODICIES: Locke • “Except for those who suffer from self-delusion, most of us live our lives suspended between certainty and doubt. If we are among the fortunate who have known the nurture of loving parents, the affection of a mate, the devotion of children, and the joy of close friends, we have a sense of that security which lies in the knowledge that we are loved and esteemed. But this certainty is not unalloyed. A father’s anger, a mother’s anguish, a spouse’s inattention or indifference, a son’s or daughter’s rebellion, and we wonder, even if momentarily, if the sureness we feel is as rooted as we think or wish.”SfG, 11 Problem of Pain 6

7. THEODICIES: Locke • “It becomes evident, in fact, when one surveys the two millennia of Christian thought, that doubt is a very common- one might almost say essential- Christian virtue! To claim such is not to try crudely to make a virtue out of necessity. It is, rather, to understand that virtually since its inception, Christianity has had among its followers those who, at some point, were doubtful about its claims and its assertions. And for those who see Scripture as the infallible record of Christian truth, it should be of more than passing interest that it is the Christian Scriptures that are replete with the experience of doubters.” SfG, 17 Problem of Pain 6

8. THEODICIES: Locke • “The business of accepting Jesus as my personal savior- as fervent evangelicals insist one must do- has always bothered me. . . . It requires no effort on the believer’s part other than to acknowledge this belief and affirm its acceptance. . . . The principal problem with this notion is that it has absolutely no basis in Scripture. . . . But the certainty demanded by those who call for an unwavering faith seems excessive as well.” SfG, 21 (Cf. 2 Tim 1:12) Problem of Pain 6

9. THEODICIES: Locke • “What, then, is required or demanded of me before I can be considered a Christian? The early church made the matter intensely simple. The earliest confessional obligation we know of is the simple declaration that ‘Jesus is Lord.’ Long before the more elaborate creedal formulations were composed, those who wished to be followers of Jesus acknowledged and affirmed him to be their Lord, the one whose cause they wished to serve and whose life they wished to emulate.” SfG, 22 Problem of Pain 6

10. THEODICIES: Locke • “What is ultimately challenged by the murder of six million Jews is a triumphal Christianity that claims to be the supreme expression of the divine will, that celebrates a victory already won, a redemption already present, and that neglects the not-yet aspect of Christian eschatology. Such a Christian vision all too often presents itself as having all the answers . . . . ” SfG, 38 • Instead, one needs to embrace the “eclipse” of God, the hiddenness, or the silence of God. SfG, 38-40 Problem of Pain 6

11. THEODICIES: Locke • “To be white is to be spared the constant reminder of one’s status and place in society and of how- if one is not white- one is likely to be perceived by those who are in charge of society’s daily processes: by teachers who assume intellectual inferiority, by police officers who presume some inclination toward criminality, by co-workers and bosses who think one’s job is owed to affirmative action, and by politicians who find the non-white populace a perfect foil for whatever fears or anxieties seekers or public office wish to feed.” SfG, 47 Problem of Pain 6

12. THEODICIES: Locke • “The corresponding question- What God has to do with the intractable business of race?- has always been a troublesome one for me, as it has to be for anyone who takes faith in God and the realities of racism seriously. . . . It seems that the God who is omnipotent ruler of the universe must, in fact, be an impotent being in the face of the undiminished injustices that reign in the world in the name of racial superiority.” SfG, 50 Problem of Pain 6

13. THEODICIES: Locke • “Given all the exhortations against doubters and doubting in the Gospels and Paul, this [story of Job] is a strange account to include in the Bible! It is strange indeed- unless its purpose is to make clear that there are things we mortals will always and necessarily confront as matters of doubt and uncertainty. God’s answers to Job’s complaint is, in large measure, precisely this assertion- bad things do happen to good people and there is no rational, logical, or theological answer to the problem.” SfG, 61 Problem of Pain 6

14. THEODICIES: Locke • “It seems clear, therefore, that much of what I might strive to know and understand about the hereafter is beyond my human capacity to understand. This leaves me vulnerable to the cynics, who can declare that mine is the intellectually cheap or easy response of those who say, in the final analysis, ‘it is all a matter of faith.’ But I believe there is something more here: the recognition and acceptance of the limitations of my own ability to fully perceive that which, by definition, is beyond the realm of human experience and thus of human comprehension.” SfG, 76 Problem of Pain 6

15. THEODICIES: Locke • “Given the reality of pain as an inevitable part of human existence, the important question becomes how we shall confront and deal with it. We can seek to ignore pain whenever possible, we can determine to face it and its causes stoically, we can seek remedies or therapies if they are available, or we can try to discover some deeper meaning or purpose in an experience that, in most cases, seems to be devoid of any rational explanation. It is part of the human condition to search for answers in every confounding situation we face.” SfG, 82 Problem of Pain 6

16. THEODICIES: Locke • “It is not surprising that the crisis moments in our lives present us with the occasions for faith. The illness of a child, the loss of one’s job, a relationship that goes sour, a marriage that shows signs of crumbling, the death of a loved one- any unexpected and dismaying event will turn many toward the wellsprings of faith.” SfG, 92 • Nevertheless, crisis moments are not only occasions of faith but moments of skepticism and doubt, be they of slight or or great proportion.” SfG, 93 Problem of Pain 6

17. THEODICIES: Locke • “If, in such moments, our doubts cause us to question ourselves, to reexamine our lives and our priorities, and to search for ways in which we can better our condition, then our skepticism will have served us well. We must be careful not to make skepticism into a philosophy of life, but we should be equally hesitant to turn it into a vice. The counsel of Josiah Royce, noted near the beginning of this book, is both wise and timely: ‘doubt is never the proper end of thinking, but it is a good beginning.’” SfG, 95 Problem of Pain 6

18. THEODICIES: Locke • “The alternative to despair is not blind faith. It is, rather, a faith that has faced its doubts and overcome them and that perseveres in spite of all the reasons to abandon the struggle for a better world. This is the powerful message of that unknown author of the Epistle to the Hebrews who asks what faith is: ‘Faith gives substance to our hopes, and makes us certain of realities we do not see.’” SfG, 108 Problem of Pain 6

19. CRITIQUE OFHubert G. Locke Problem of Pain 6

20. THE PROBLEM OF PAIN The Scream, E. Munch, http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/munch/