Raging with Compassion 2

One of the very interesting features of John Swinton’s approach to theodicy is his impatience with all attempts to respond to evil and suffering at the intellectual, philosophical and theoretical levels. Theoretical theology is for Swinton, if not a contradiction in terms, then an incongruous non-alignment of truth with practice. Theology lives as it is lived, is true if it has purchase on action, and Christian doctrine must be embodied in an interconnected cluster of redemptive practices. Here is his own summary statement of a practical theodicy, followed by further comment from Hauerwas, whose thinking resonates at many points with Swinton.

Practical theodicy is the process wherein the church community, in and through its practices, offers subversive modes of resistance to the evil and suffering experienced by the world. The goal of practical theodicy is, by practicing these gestures of redemption, to enable people to continue to love God in the face of evil and suffering and in so doing to prevent tragic suffering from becoming evil.      (Swinton, p. 83).

Then this from Hauerwas’ Naming the Silences, p.53:

Historically speaking, Christians have not had a "solution" to the problem of evil. Rather, they have had a community of care that has made it possible for them to absorb the destructive terror of evil that constantly threatens to destroy all human relations.

  As one who has spent years in pastoral care confronting suffering and accompanying those for whom suffering is a challenge to faith, I recognise the truth, that theodicy is not ‘a philosophical question needing solution, but a practical challenge requiring a response’. And while I have found some help in much of the theological and philosophical literature, when it comes down to the reality of human suffering and the many evils that cause it, the responses that are most profoundly Christian are practical and pastoral. Such a theodicy aims at enabling and embodying those redemptive gestures that support, affirm, acknowledge and cherish those human people for whom suffering has deep and decisive reality. The Christlikeness of such practical and pastoral redemptive gestures is evidenced throughout the gospels in stories of compassionate actions rooted in the redemptive purposes of God.

I tried exploring Swinton’s approach the other morning, in the theology class I am currently teaching, as an alternative to traditional philosophical and theological theodicies – the response from the students was positive and engaged. Having worked away at various forms of the traditional defences, they warmed to Swinton’s approach, which encourages active engagement in redemptive gestures of lived resistance, for a Christian community, the more effective response. It was a very interesting experience of students grabbing at tough theology and finding ways to use and apply it to the lives we all live.