Theodicy in a Groaning World

Theodicy: In essence this is the question of why bad things happen to good people.

Last year at this time I was working on my senior thesis on St. Thomas Aquinas’ literal exposition on the book of Job. Several people I talked to, mostly at church, were intrigued and told me that they would be interested in reading my thesis as they had always been interested in that question of theodicy.  The problem is that I was writing a history paper on Aquinas’ work, and theodicy is a theological question, I suppose I could write on the changing perspectives in theodicy with an emphasis on Aquinas, but the other problem is that Thomas Aquinas genuinely didn’t seem to care about theodicy, and best I can tell people can ask that question of Christianity all they want but it happens to be the only religion that won’t give them an answer. Aquinas approached the book of Job as a question of Divine providence in that God throughout the whole book clearly was watching and had a hand in what was happening, though ‘the Adversary’ conducted many of the trials they were only permitted because God allowed them. So here’s a man whom God is actively allowing “bad things” to happen to, and Aquinas’ response is this:

    For good things do not always befall the good nor evil things the wicked. On the other hand, evil things do not always befall the good nor good things the wicked, but good and evil indifferently befall both the good and the wicked. (Prolog to the Exposition on Job)   

Mind you, this all falls into Aquinas’ argument relating to Providence which I am not discussing in this blog, I didn’t even discuss it in my thesis.  The paper I wrote ended up being a feminist piece on Aquinas’ effect on the role of Women’s Ordination. Also not my topic for this blog.

So why am I even breeching the subject of theodicy now?  For starters a magnitude 8.9 Earthquake hit Japan tonight and portions of the U.S. West Coast are under Tsunami Warning/Advisory only 14 months after a devastating Earthquake in Haiti, and 12 after an Earthquake of similar size in Chile. Recent floods in New Zealand and Australia not to mention earthquakes there in the last year.  My church is currently doing a study on suffering and Wednesday marked the beginning of lent.  Accidents, natural disaster and unpreventable incurable diseases kill our loved ones.

First, now that I have named these things, I want to make a simple point: As an island nation Japan will probably have more damage than Chile, however the damage done in Haiti will still be found to have been worse. A small island nation which was forced to maintain a state of poverty due to brutal dictators and poor international policy of the world powers had, and still has little infrastructure to keep it a float without any natural disasters.  The earthquakes in Japan and Chile were both 8.9, Haiti was a 7.0. I only draw this distinction to say that much, though certainly not all, the devastation in Haiti was preventable. It was already going to be bad, but it didn’t have to be that bad.

The only subject in Science that I’ve really had much interest in was Geology.  Seismic and volcanic activity is something I find interesting.  The shifting of tectonic plates and, quite frankly, the vast devastation that that can bring.  The idea of Harry Truman in his cabin on the side of the mountain telling off the bearers of bad news saying that if St. Helens really is gonna blow then he’ll go down with the mountain, David Johnston doing that last bit of research before he’s trapped and shares Truman’s fate.  Photos of the San Francisco earthquake are interesting to me as well.  One of the major things I learned in my geology classes is simply that none of us are safe.  Right now there is something seriously messed up with the very place that you are sitting and something could happen at any moment, an earthquake, an eruption, a sinkhole, any number of things.  So when people start asking why God would allow an earthquake at this one specific point, be it Haiti, Chile, or Japan I simply feel as though, if they were truly outraged enough, they would be asking why the planet is so broken.

Then, we might be getting somewhere. 

Why is the planet one big powder keg? 
Why do we all have to die? 
Why does it seem that the physical, natural attributes of this planet and our bodies mimic the fragile state of our human relations?

I don’t believe that I will know this side of heaven, and I’m not a “Pie in the sky when you die” sort of believer. Faith must have real application here and now.  I am the sort of believer who thinks Jesus is the Muslim man or woman being marginalized, the homeless man I step over on the street, the undocumented worker who chooses not to report a rape for fear she will get deported.  I’m the sort of believer who believes that God weeps with me and the rest of his children even when he already knows how the situation will be redeemed because he feels our pain. 

I’m the sort of believer who stood at the foot of the steps while my pastor put ashes on my forehead while saying “Remember, you are dust and to dust you shall return” this past Wednesday. You have to admit that puts life in perspective for a moment.

The truth is other religions have some form of karma, what you do will come back to you.  The problem, in my view, is that that is not always true. It seems like it would make sense and often it does but plenty of people live their entire lives without consequences which is why theology of reincarnation or heaven and hell help, because then we think that maybe they’ll eventually pay.  Christianity however, doesn’t have karma, stuff happens and we’re all broken people in a broken world and that brokenness isn’t just spiritual it’s physical. You want to blame God for such shoddy design.  Not long after his wife died (I believe of some illness, possibly cancer) C.S. Lewis wrote a journal that was later published under the name N.W. Clerk because some of the things he had to say and some of the anger he had to express toward God he was concerned to have directly associated with his name in public on particularly compelling passage reads:

        If God's goodness is inconsistent with hurting us, then either God is not good or there is no God: for in the only life we know He hurts us beyond our worst fears and beyond all we can imagine. If it is consistent with hurting us, then He may hurt us after death as unendurably as before it.
        Sometimes it is hard not to say, 'God forgive God.' Sometimes it is hard to say so much. But if our faith is true, He didn't. He crucified Him.    

I hope what Lewis is saying there isn’t lost, that last paragraph is short but wordy.  The point he makes in the midst of his anger is that God deemed that someone did need to suffer for the brokenness evident in the world so he chose to do it himself. Of course at this point in the book this paragraph does little to reconcile Lewis’ struggle with God’s goodness I still find it to be an interesting thought to spring forth in the midst of his grief.

Following the Haiti Earthquake a particular high profile Televangelist (who shall not be named) blamed the people of Haiti for what he claimed was a deal they made with the devil.  Mind you I do believe that the god they were presented with by their French oppressors was a god worth rejecting, who wouldn’t choose to turn to what they had been taught was the opposite of what kept them in bondage?  Following this man’s declaration he received a great deal of media attention, though I continue to be a fan of the Daily Show With Jon Stewart, after playing the video clip of this man’s words Stewart pulled out a bible and asked incredulously if, out of such a large book, that’s all this man could come up with.  Stewart then quoted a few verses:

•    The LORD is close to the brokenhearted; he rescues those who are crushed in spirit. Psalm 34:18   

•    Fear thou not; for I [am] with thee: be not dismayed; for I [am] thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness. Isaiah 41:10   
•    Thou who hast made me see many sore troubles wilt revive me again; from the depths of the earth thou wilt bring me up again. Psalm 71:20  

•    Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed," says the Lord, who has compassion on you. Isaiah 54:10  

I can only pray that someone won’t, once again, make such a heartless statement that will require a comedian on a fake news show to do his job for him. Our faith doesn’t teach karma, sometimes things will come back to bite you in this life but sometimes they won’t. An earthquake is not God’s punishment and it’s not God randomly doling out suffering. The world is broken but healing has already begun and we can join together to make the kingdom “on Earth as it is in heaven.”

For closing, I've found a new favorite song: Jon Foreman lead singer of Switchfoot singing "Instead of a Show"