hermeneutika's Home Pages An attempt at a Christian worldview
Theodicy The problem of evil and the God of love
One can perhaps dwell on the problems of a particular evil, eg the gun trade, the drugs trade, the slave trade, natural disasters, murders, tortures the list is endless. Or one can indulge in something called Christian theodicy. This does not try and solve the individual problems but attempts to generate a understanding of why such dreadful things happen in the face of the Christian claim that God is a God of love and compassion. The attempt to square the circle of dreadful evil, for example the nazi death camps, and the message of God through Jesus the Christ. Welcome to Theodicy. Elsewhere on this site I attempt to deal with the problems of substance abuse. This is of course a individual case of a particular evil. Whereas this page attempts to deal with the general problem of evil and suffering.
The standard answer perhaps to the problem of suffering and death is of course the doctrine of the Fall. Man's original disobedience in the Garden of Eden, where he gave his birthright to satan. He swapped Gods. And made satan the god of this world. Hence, death,suffering,disease, natural disasters,war, etc etc. Even the birth and death of the Christian Saviour, the Lord Jesus the Christ, has not changed that much. There is still death and suffering,nazi death camps etc. Yet at least the advent of Christianity into this world brought about a society governed by rules of love and forgiveness in its better moments. The effect of Christ on human society has been profound. Though of course in recent decades of course the Christian faith has begun to wane in Western society.