This paper addresses the topic of how God can be known in relation to the radical evil of innocent human suffering. Beginning by distinguishing between understanding and explanation as two related but different types of knowledge, it argues that God's love and radical evil are to be understood, not explained. While logical explanations of how God's love and radical evil inevitably subvert one or both realities, understanding allows both to stand and be appreciated for what they are. The paper goes on to argue that explanation does have a necessary role in enabling participation in God's redemptive work of overcoming evil. Explanation enriches understanding but never replaces it. Related in this way, understanding and explanation can supplement each other in the task of illuminating the human condition and guiding human action.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Barth, Karl1975Church Dogmatics. Volume 1: The Doctrine of the Word of God, Part l. Edited by G. W. Bromiley and T.F. Torrance, translated by G.W. Bromiley. Edinburgh: T. &T. Clark.
2.
Blenkinsopp, Joseph2000Isaiah 1-39: The Anchor Bible. New York : Doubleday.
3.
Bloch, Ernst1972Atheism in Christianity. Translated by J. T. Swann. New York: Herder and Herder .
4.
Borgmann, Albert2003Power Failure: Christianity in the Culture of Technology . Grand Rapids, MI: Brazos Press .
5.
Buber, Martin1949The Prophetic Faith. Translated by Carlyle Witton-Davies. New York: Harper & Row.
6.
Clines, David J.A.1989Job 1-20. Word Biblical Commentary, 17. Dallas, Texas: Word Books. Despland, Michel1985The Education of Desire: Plato and the Philosophy of Religion. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
7.
Gadamer, Hans-Georg1993Truth and Method. 2nd rev. ed. Translation revised by Joel Weinsheimer and Donald Marshall. New York: Continuum.
8.
Grant, George1986Technology and Justice. Toronto : House of Anansi Press.
9.
Greenberg, Irving1977 "Cloud of smoke, pillar of fire: Judaism, Christianity, and Modernity after the Holocaust" In Eva Fleischner (ed.), Auschwitz: Beginning of a New Era?, 7-55. New York : KTAV.
10.
Gutierrez, Gustavo1986On Job: God-Talk and the Suffering of the Innocent . Translated by Matthew J. O'Connell. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books.
11.
Habel, Norman1985The Book of Job. Philadelphia : Westminster Press.
12.
Habermas, Jurgen1971Knowledge and Human Interests. Translated by J. Shapiro. Boston: Beacon Press.
13.
Horkheimer, Max and Theodor Adorno1993Dialectic of Enlightenment. Translated by John Cumming. New York: Continuum.
14.
Kant, Immanuel1972 [1791] "On the failure of all attempted philosophical theodicies" In Michel Despland , Kant on History and Religion, 283-97. Montreal and London: McGill-Queen's University Press.
15.
Luther, Martin1960Lectures on Genesis, Chapters 6-14: Luther's Works Volume 2. Edited by Jaroslav Pelikan, Assistant Editor Daniel Poellot.Saint Louis: Concordia.
16.
Milbank, John1995 "Can a gift be given? Prolegomena to a future trinitarian metaphysic" Modern Theology11,1:119-61.
17.
Moltmann, Jurgen1967Theology of Hope. Translated by James W. Leitch. London: SCM Press.
18.
1974The Crucified God. Translated by R.A. Wilson and John Bowden . London: SCM Press.
19.
1999God for a Secular Society. Translated by Margaret Kohl . London: SCM Press.
20.
Pinnnock, Sarah K.2002Beyond Theodicy: Jewish and Christian Continental Thinkers Respond to the Holocaust. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.
21.
Placher, William C.1996The Domestication of Transcendence. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press.
22.
Rahner, Karl1983Theological Investigations. Volume 19: Faith and Ministry. Translated by E. Quinn. London: Darton, Longman and Todd.
23.
Rickman, H.P.1978Wilhelm Dilthey: Pioneer of the Human Studies . London: Paul Elek.
24.
1987Dilthey Today. New York: Greenwood Press.
25.
Ricoeur, Paul1980Essays on Biblical Interpretation. Edited with an Introduction by Lewis Mudge . Philadelphia: Fortress Press.
26.
1981Hermeneutics and the Human Sciences. Edited and translated by John B. Thompson.New York : Cambridge University Press.
27.
1986 "Evil, a challenge to philosophy and theology" In H. Deuser, G. Martin, K. Stock and M. Welker (eds.), Gottes Zukunft-Zukunft der Welt. Munchen: Chr. Kaiser Verlag.
28.
Rorty, Richard1979Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
29.
Roth, John K.1981 "Theodicy of protest." In Stephen T. Davis (ed.), Encountering Evil: Live Options in Theodicy, 7-22. Atlanta: John Knox Press.
30.
Schreiner, Susan E.1994Where Shall Wisdom Be Found ?Chicago : University of Chicago Press.
31.
Schweitzer, Don1999 "The Great Depression: The response of North American theologians " In Gregory Baum (ed.), The Twentieth Century: A Theological Overview, 49-60. Maryknoll, NY : Orbis Books.
32.
2001 "Food as gift, necessity and possibility." Religious Studies and Theology20,2:1-19.
33.
Soelle, Dorothee1991 "God's pain and our pain" In Otto Maduro (ed.), Judaism, Christianity, and Liberation: An Agenda for Dialogue, 110-21. Maryknoll, NY : Orbis Books.
34.
Taylor, Charles1985a Human Agency and Language: Philosophical Papers , Vol.1. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press .
35.
1985 b Philosophy and the Human Sciences: Philosophical Papers, Vol. 2Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
36.
1989Sources of the Self. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
37.
1991The Malaise of Modernity. Concord, ON : House of Anansi Press.
38.
2002 "Gadamer on the human sciences" In Robert Dostal (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Gadamer , 126-42. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press .
39.
Thiel, John E.2002God, Evil, and Innocent Suffering. New York: Crossroad.
40.
Tillich, Paul1951Systematic Theology, Vol. 1. Chicago : University of Chicago Press.
41.
1959Theology of Culture. Edited by Robert C. Kimball.NewYork: Oxford University Press.
42.
Tracy, David1981The Analogical Imagination. New York : Crossroad.
43.
Welker, Michael1994God the Spirit. Translated by John Hoffmeyer. Minneapolis : Fortress Press.
