Suffering and Evil

So I'm taking another course in Judeo-Christian attempts at theodicy.

I've definitely begun to agree with Wendy Farley with her approach, "I place suffering rather than sin at the center of the problem of evil." I think this is a thesis worth breaking down.

First off, its been noted that people are quick to get lost in an abstract game when dealing with evil, stemming from Hume's classic formulation and just getting caught up in the abstract stratosphere. Thus keeping suffering in one's mind, be it personal or literary or current, can help one ground the theodicy in reality. This seems important to me, but also superficial.

Suffering needs to be at the center of theodicy, very much because evil is allusive and hard to grasp. Evil is subjective. But the phenomena of suffering seems to me to be subjective in a workable way. While the causes of one's suffering are subject to the person feeling the despair, the feeling of suffering seems quite universal. Universal in the sense that it happens to everyone, as good ol Buddha pointed out, and universal in the sense that the experience is similar from time to time. Clearly there are differences in degree, but the weight and burden, the lack of motivation, etc... is similar from time to time. Suffering then is something that can be dealt with, hopefully, universally (at least in the previous senses). Evil cannot, as what constitutes evil seems to vary with culture, time, person, religious conviction, you name it.

Suffering is able to dealt with then, its able to analyzed, appreciated, understood and worked through. Suffering should be at this center.

I must admit that the second aspect of what Farley mentions is alien to me, for she mentions that suffering, rather than sin should be at the center of this problem. My religious convictions are sporadic at best, and to therefore talk of sin seems immediately foreign to me. I'm quick to substitute sin with "personal immoral actions" and from there acknowledge the ambiguity in moral actions. I think that Farley is making a great move here, because she's advocating for a response to this problem that doesn't necessitate a Juedo-Christian framework. It does infer one, as she isn't dealing with suffering as it relates in Buddhism or Daoism per se, but it opens up the issue to think of from without this restraint. I see that as admirable.

Anyway, this is a short post, expect more commentary on Wendy Farley and "Tragic Vision and Divine Compassion" in the future.