Winter 2012 RELIGION 349-CN Topics in Christianity- Understanding Tragedy and The Mystery of Evil

"Understanding Tragedy and The Mystery of Evil" - Topics in Christianity

According to St. Augustine, human beings are free, and it is the problem of freedom that allows evil to happen. Contemporary theodicies come no closer to explaining away the existence of evil than Augustine did in his exploration of the question of God as the cause of evil as well as good, the creator of the serpent in the garden, the tempter to the Fall. Augustine began his defense of God by bringing several assumptions to the table: that there is a God, that God is all-good, all-powerful and all-knowing and that there is a divine order to the universe. Contemporary "explorers" of the subject, like Wendy Farley, Arthur McGill, Tyron Inbody, Dorothee Soelle and Gustavo Gutierrez, to name only a few, operate from these same assumptions and, while their approaches differ, all end with the same frustrating non-answer to the primary question: Is God responsible for evil and for the suffering in the universe? This course probes this question, but also looks at others: How do you account for the Good in the world? Would we know good if we did not have evil? Can you have Good without God? Where did evil come from if God did not create it? Is God responsible for human tragedy?

Current as of 05/03/13 05:58:37 PM