tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3915617830446943975.post1738163678099316678..comments2024-03-29T13:12:31.523+13:00Comments on Anglican Down Under: On Wisdom, the Problem of Suffering and How We Should LivePeter Carrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09535218286799156659noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3915617830446943975.post-29321697340518398542021-08-21T08:47:05.789+12:002021-08-21T08:47:05.789+12:00Sorry, Bosco, I'm just now seeing this.
Yes, ...Sorry, Bosco, I'm just now seeing this.<br /><br />Yes, any text that dissolves the merely rationalistic Problem of Evil in the human universal of suffering is engaging the actual crisis in our existence. Much better.<br /><br />All deep religions address suffering, but not in the same way. If one must have a discursive explanation for it, then one can probably do no better than Siddhartha's early discourses on desire in the Pali Canon.<br /><br />At this altitude, Homer's Iliad and the Greek tragedies seem to mirror that Indic thought that the appetitive life brings its own frustration (eg the pleasure of Briseis brings Achilles the pain of the death of Patroclus). But a famous chorus in Aeschylus's Agamemnon (lines 179-183) reflects that the gods use the pain of suffering to send wisdom.**<br /><br />Nearer Jerusalem than Paris, Varanasi, or Athens, the Tanakh is full of psalms and prophecies in which voices place their experience of suffering in the heart of their relationship with YHWH. In this Judaic imaginary, both pain and its dissolution are *active* concerns of consciousness in God.<br /><br />As a wisdom poem in rebellion against rationalism, Job is especially interesting. It slyly gives several rationalists the opportunity to fail. Then Job's poetic interview with the Whirlwind evokes the communion that it prescribes. Finally, Job himself emerges from the ordeal with a more just respect for his daughters. If you get a chance to see J.B.,Archibald MacLeish's verse adaptation for the stage, do take it.<br /><br />Isaiah is likewise no rationalist in singing of the redemptive pain of the Suffering Servant. If, as Daniel Boyarin suggests, midrash connected those songs to other messianic texts before the C1, Jesus himself stepped into a considerable body of reflection on suffering and then deepened it in his own healings and self-sacrifice.<br /><br />** These are the lines with which Robert F. Kennedy broke the news of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr to a Black crowd in Indianapolis on April 4, 1968. His remarks that evening on his grief at the assassinations of his brother and Dr King are widely credited with dissuading his audience from rioting as so many did in other US cities that night.<br /><br />BW Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11931946224142718747noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3915617830446943975.post-82164292570503911422021-08-08T15:01:29.823+12:002021-08-08T15:01:29.823+12:00Ummm... Bowman, you mean the story, in the "c...Ummm... Bowman, you mean the story, in the "consistent" Bible dealing with the Problem of Evil, where Satan is matey with YHWH and the other divine beings, and they work together to see if they can break Job, and in the process of trying to break Job, they kill people, burn animals and people, leaving destitute grieving whānau, and conclude this sequence by giving Job some form of plague - that's the story you mean?<br />And that's seen as a more adequate response to the Problem of Evil?<br />Blessings<br />BoscoAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3915617830446943975.post-32062541407419545502021-08-07T18:46:18.952+12:002021-08-07T18:46:18.952+12:00Adam Neely exposes The Great Myth of the Medieval ...Adam Neely exposes The Great Myth of the Medieval Tritone Ban<br /><br />https://youtu.be/3MhwGnq4N9o<br /><br />BWAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3915617830446943975.post-42438657857521986372021-08-05T10:09:31.520+12:002021-08-05T10:09:31.520+12:00One of my daily spiritual pursuits, Bishop Peter, ...One of my daily spiritual pursuits, Bishop Peter, is to look in on the Jesuit 3-Minute Retreat on the Loyola website. Today's reflection haS THIS TO SAY:<br /><br />"At one time or another, everyone experiences the weariness expressed by the psalmist who sees himself falling short of the goal and unable to reach it alone. The demands of our daily life and the accumulation of shortcomings and failures, big and small, breed discouragement. It is in these moments that the sacramental life of the Church gathers us to encounter the mercy, forgiveness, generosity, and strengthening of God. In the sacraments we are restored from brokenness and given new life and hope. Refreshed, strengthened, and encouraged, we can once again be the light of Christ to others.<br /><br />This is what keeps me going - to feed on the spiritual resources of Jesus in the sacrament of his loving grace and empowerment. This freshens up my 92 years of living. AGAPE.Father Ronhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17062632692873621258noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3915617830446943975.post-79409493322471793842021-08-03T04:47:24.002+12:002021-08-03T04:47:24.002+12:00Suffering is a problem. To endure it without being...Suffering is a problem. To endure it without being demoralized one needs an intention.<br /><br />Suffering is also universal. At least, everyone everywhere says that it is.<br /><br />But for whom, exactly, is The Problem of Evil a problem, and why? <br /><br />Job's answer was not pragmatism-- although he did do some very interesting things-- but communion with the Whirlwind.<br /><br />Likewise, the Suffering Servant.<br /><br />BW<br /><br />Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11931946224142718747noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3915617830446943975.post-14720007300712048072021-08-02T22:21:33.789+12:002021-08-02T22:21:33.789+12:00Hi Bosco
A debate in which words like “partial” (M...Hi Bosco<br />A debate in which words like “partial” (Moberly) and “underplays”, “overplays”(Peters) feature is both a genuine debate and one which may - on clarifying terms etc - admit of reconciliation.Peter Carrellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09535218286799156659noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3915617830446943975.post-45949386560026092682021-08-02T13:27:39.381+12:002021-08-02T13:27:39.381+12:00Ummm... sorry, Peter, I cannot share your enthusia...Ummm... sorry, Peter, I cannot share your enthusiasm for this approach.<br /><br />I think this approach underplays freedom as an explanation of the Problem of Evil, and the concomitant requirement (in order to be free) of a consistent universe.<br /><br />And it overplays the Bible as a better solution - a "biblical witness" that is not "consistent" in its response, regularly has God as allowing evil, and often as the source of it.<br /><br />Blessings<br /><br />BoscoAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3915617830446943975.post-80741367339803811492021-08-02T12:22:33.190+12:002021-08-02T12:22:33.190+12:00This Old Testament Scholar sounds very much like m...This Old Testament Scholar sounds very much like my own Old Testament Scholar at Saint John's College, Auckland; Dr. John J. Lewis. His O.T. lectures were studded with parallels from the New Testament. He seemed to have a very balanced view of the influence of both sets of Scripture on the way in which we might live out our lives as students and propagators of the Good News of Jesus The Christ. One of his main interests was in the implementation of Justice with Mercy - a theme common to the best of the O.T.Prophets in their prefacing of the Gospel of the Annointed Messiah.Father Ronhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17062632692873621258noreply@blogger.com