Suffering and its connection with Evil in our world.
Thesis: how has humanities understanding of suffering changed over the centuries? I will be exploring how our understandings of evil affects was our knowledge of suffering. My sources will include apostolic letters, academic journals from various university professors. I will also be including biblical references as a point of reference between these two topics. Lastly, I will offer my own insights on this important topic.
When someone goes through a difficult moment in their lives they offer ask themselves the following questions. Why did this happen? , What did I do to God to have him punish me? Why is their evil in this world? Have I not suffered enough I my life? These questions are …show more content…
Susan Nelson, who teaches at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. In her article Facing Evil: Evil’s Many Faces, Five Paradigms for understanding Evil. Dr. Nelson lays out in detail the biblical aspects of evil and offers examples from history on how evil has developed over time.
First she writes that “Evil is an awareness of this disjuncture between the pronouncement that life is God’s good creation and the knowledge that suffering and violence is rea and threaten not only life and health but also any sense of meaning, and blessing . Evil is the experience of suffering, misery, death m and the accompanying fear that such suffering undermines any hope of meaning and order in the world or of a God who exercises providential care”. (399)
Dr. Nelson then looks at evil in a moral view, “this moral view of evil is a major stream in biblical thought. It begins in the second creation narrative, is woven through the stories of Cain and Abel, Babel, David, and Bathsheba, and finds voice in prophetic pronouncement. In this moral vision, evil is rooted in human sin. Creation is tarnished by sin and evil, but evil does not threaten human confidence in a just and meaningful world order”. …show more content…
… Every man has his own share in the Redemption. Each one is also called to share in that suffering through which the Redemption was accomplished. He is called to share in that suffering through which all human suffering has also been redeemed. In bringing about the Redemption through suffering, Christ has also raised human suffering to the level of the Redemption. Thus each man, in his suffering, can also become a sharer in the redemptive suffering of Christ”
One church document that had a profound impact on the church was Gaudium Et Spes. It written by Pope Paul VI , in his pastoral constitution writes the following on the dignity of the human person . Sacred scripture teaches us that man was created “to the image of God”(12). God made him ruler over the earth with two main purposes First, “ that he might subdue them, and use them to Gods glory” and secondly to care for them. We also read in scripture especially in Genesis 1:31 God saw “all that he made, and it was very good”(7)
Pope Pius XIII , in Mystici Corporis Christi, 44 wrote the
Thesis: how has humanities understanding of suffering changed over the centuries? I will be exploring how our understandings of evil affects was our knowledge of suffering. My sources will include apostolic letters, academic journals from various university professors. I will also be including biblical references as a point of reference between these two topics. Lastly, I will offer my own insights on this important topic.
When someone goes through a difficult moment in their lives they offer ask themselves the following questions. Why did this happen? , What did I do to God to have him punish me? Why is their evil in this world? Have I not suffered enough I my life? These questions are …show more content…
Susan Nelson, who teaches at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. In her article Facing Evil: Evil’s Many Faces, Five Paradigms for understanding Evil. Dr. Nelson lays out in detail the biblical aspects of evil and offers examples from history on how evil has developed over time.
First she writes that “Evil is an awareness of this disjuncture between the pronouncement that life is God’s good creation and the knowledge that suffering and violence is rea and threaten not only life and health but also any sense of meaning, and blessing . Evil is the experience of suffering, misery, death m and the accompanying fear that such suffering undermines any hope of meaning and order in the world or of a God who exercises providential care”. (399)
Dr. Nelson then looks at evil in a moral view, “this moral view of evil is a major stream in biblical thought. It begins in the second creation narrative, is woven through the stories of Cain and Abel, Babel, David, and Bathsheba, and finds voice in prophetic pronouncement. In this moral vision, evil is rooted in human sin. Creation is tarnished by sin and evil, but evil does not threaten human confidence in a just and meaningful world order”. …show more content…
… Every man has his own share in the Redemption. Each one is also called to share in that suffering through which the Redemption was accomplished. He is called to share in that suffering through which all human suffering has also been redeemed. In bringing about the Redemption through suffering, Christ has also raised human suffering to the level of the Redemption. Thus each man, in his suffering, can also become a sharer in the redemptive suffering of Christ”
One church document that had a profound impact on the church was Gaudium Et Spes. It written by Pope Paul VI , in his pastoral constitution writes the following on the dignity of the human person . Sacred scripture teaches us that man was created “to the image of God”(12). God made him ruler over the earth with two main purposes First, “ that he might subdue them, and use them to Gods glory” and secondly to care for them. We also read in scripture especially in Genesis 1:31 God saw “all that he made, and it was very good”(7)
Pope Pius XIII , in Mystici Corporis Christi, 44 wrote the