Welcome Guest [Log In] [Register]
Welcome to The New Coffee Room. We hope you enjoy your visit.


You're currently viewing our forum as a guest. This means you are limited to certain areas of the board and there are some features you can't use. If you join our community, you'll be able to access member-only sections, and use many member-only features such as customizing your profile, sending personal messages, and voting in polls. Registration is simple, fast, and completely free.


Join our community!


If you're already a member please log in to your account to access all of our features:

Username:   Password:
Add Reply
God, science, suffering, and family dynamics; Set your (small) coffee on it...
Topic Started: May 25 2008, 05:52 PM (232 Views)
Dewey
Member Avatar
HOLY CARP!!!
For the last several days, I've been working on a final paper for a theology class. It's a very short thing (1750 words) intended to address a hypothetical situation, which I'll share with you, as well as the paper itself. Based on its required brevity, it can't deal with any of the issues in great depth, but it does at least touch on several issues that have arisen in TNCR in days recent and near-recent, so I thought I'd throw it out there just for giggles. Footnotes have disappeared in the cut-and-paste, and the embedded citations would ring any bells, but here it is anyway.

The scenario:

Mary, a member of a congregation that you are serving, tells you that she has
been diagnosed with cancer. The prognosis is that she will not live more than two years, if that. Her mother died at about the same age with the same cancer, and so she and the physicians assume that Mary has a hereditary predisposition toward the cancer, but this is not proven.

Throughout her adult life, Mary has been eager to reflect in sophisticated ways on
the meaning of her faith. She has worked for several decades in the nearby state
university, where she has taught basic science and biology to future public school
teachers. Often at church she led Bible studies and other adult education series, including one recently on God and suffering. You know from what she told you about the class that she believes that God creates by allowing nature to evolve without divine control or intervention, even at the cost of human suffering.

The news of the diagnosis has now caused a crisis of faith in her family. Her
daughter, Bobbi, is a senior in high school. Like her mother, she is also very interested in biology but believes that evolutionary theory is seriously flawed. She accepts a more traditional view of God and creation, including belief that God pretty much controls nature and such things as her mother’s health. Mary’s husband, Robert, is not particularly interested in these questions but is ready to provide Mary the support she will need in the dying process.

You have visited and you know about all this. But one day Robert calls and asks
you to come by to talk especially with Mary and Bobbi. The two have been arguing
lately about God, suffering, cancer, heredity, and evolution. Mary is willing to say that her condition is “just pretty much the way God made things,” while Bobbi is convinced that God is in charge and that there must be some reason for everything. All three of them agree in their hope of resurrection, and they talk of this from time to time.

As you prepare for the visit, you imagine what you want to say to Mary and
Bobbi. The assignment is to write this out as a paper. You have 1750 words. You can allocate any proportion you want to the concerns of Mary or Bobbi, as long as something of substance is said to each.


============

The scenario presented between Mary and Bobbi involves two primary concerns. The first is the theological issue of one’s understanding of theodicy, which is necessarily heavily influenced by one’s understanding of our origins. The second is more one of pastoral care: how do individuals resolve theological differences – particularly within a family already in the midst of other transition or crisis?

The events within this situation require other aspects of pastoral care not directly related to the scenario presented, including issues related to Robert. However, this paper will only address the pastoral care issues immediately relevant to the scenario.

The theological issues are the same for both mother and daughter. Each has synthesized a relatively cohesive system of belief, explaining the nature of our origin; the manner in which God is involved in that origin; whether God continues involvement in our existence; and an explanation for the existence of suffering within a cosmos that they agree is the creation of a loving and merciful God.

I personally find difficulties in the personal theologies of both Mary and Bobbi. I want to address my own thoughts about those difficulties in a caring manner. I also feel that discussing these difficulties – and offering additional or alternative thoughts – may help somewhat to reconcile the two.

I first want to speak alone with Mary. I share her belief that God’s creative process has been, and continues to be, via evolution. While I agree with her understanding of the inevitability of suffering in the world, I disagree with her view that this is simply “the way God made things,” and that God has no further involvement in creation after having set in motion. I see this as a critical issue for her to consider as she faces the imminent and likely painful end of her life. I want to remind her of Jesus’ words: “Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground without your Father’s will. But even the hairs on your head are numbered” (Mt. 10:29-30) – that while the language is metaphorical, it still illustrates our worth in God’s eyes, and that God continues to work providentially in creation. I want to agree with her that, as Migliore writes, “Christian faith and theology has much to learn from modern biological research and scientific cosmology: that God has indeed created a dynamic and open… universe… in which there is change, novelty, and indeterminacy as well as continuity, order, and coherence.” But then I would challenge her to consider why God would will such a creation, only to refuse to move and act within that dynamic system. I would point out that “a God who was not somehow actively engaged with the world was just not much of a God.” Jesus’ words, “Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest” (Mt. 11:28) illustrate that God continues to work within creation and our lives. It is very important for Mary to be assured that we are not abandoned to our own fortunes by God. “[T]he true God is no absentee landlord;” this point is reinforced continually throughout Scripture. It is one of our greatest sources of comfort that whatever the circumstances, we never face them alone without God’s providential love. I expect that Mary will disagree with my thoughts, pointing out the many occasions in which it seems that God has not acted providentially within history possibly citing examples like the Holocaust and similar horrors. To that, I can only say that even in those cases, God is still at work – not in the sense that God has directly willed them, as Bobbi might suggest, but that God continues to work within history, often in spite of circumstances, to achieve God’s will for creation. I would admit that there are many cases where I cannot see or understand God’s providence, in the examples she offers or ones in my own mind – 130,000 people killed in a flood; 35,000 people killed in an earthquake. However, because of the assurance that I have from other instances, where God’s providence is clearly seen, I know that God is trustworthy, and true to God’s covenant with us, that we will be God’s people, and God will be our God - even when I can’t fully comprehend it.

After an initial conversation with Mary, I would then speak with Bobbi. I would let her know that I share her strong belief that God is sovereign over all of creation and the events that occur within it. I would say that I recognized the longstanding opinion within our faith that God directly controls all events – that this was a common understanding in the early church. I would acknowledge that this attitude was prevalent during the Reformation – that Calvin wrote that there is no such thing as fortune or chance, and that many Christians hold to this day the belief that God is the direct causation of all events - that every occurrence is something directly intended and willed by God. This is a critical point: if everything is caused directly by God for a reason – and if we acknowledge, as we must, that many events in human history are undeniably evil – then we must accept that God directly wills evil. Even when we can point to some subsequent good that arose as an outcome of some evil event, the idea that God is one who directly wills evil is not only an unappealing position, but an extremely untenable one as well. It is certainly inconsistent with Scriptural descriptions of God’s nature. Bobbi will likely counter my thoughts by offering Scriptural references where God is indeed described as directly causing (or directly allowing) evil to befall a person, likely citing the Book of Job. To this, I would point out that this book, even if based on an actual, historical person, is still told in an allegorical, almost theatrical literary form - particularly in the opening account of the conversation between God and Satan. I would point out that we do not believe in a God who would literally use us as poker chips in a cosmic round of Texas Hold ‘Em. I would suggest to Bobbi that in one sense, nothing that occurs is purely by fortune or chance, but I would suggest to her that the reason for some things are the natural systems – chemical, biological, geological, meteorological, etc. – that God has wisely established, and which, to our benefit, operate largely within set rules which we may then learn to understand, rely on, and even predict. As Guthrie writes, “…most modern Christians… know that God does not aim storms at any particular place; they are the result of global systems of high and low atmospheric pressure… If a baby dies or is born with a severe handicap, we know that it is not because God willed it but because something went wrong with the delivery, or perhaps because of the genetic structure of the father and mother.” I would stress to Bobbi that there is indeed a reason when bad things happen, but that reason is the natural system which God has established, and which in a larger sense is a providential good for us all – but that is far different than believing that everything, including every evil, that occurs to an individual is something that God wills – quite the contrary, actually.

I would also discuss Bobbi’s belief in a more traditional, literal understanding of creation. I would tell her that I respect her belief, acknowledging that many Christians hold that same belief even while honestly telling her that I did not share it. I would tell her, as Guthrie points out, that there is nothing inherently inconsistent in holding both to evolutionary theory and to faith in God the creator. I would tell her that I, and many other believers – including her mother – feel that God has given us intellect and a desire to increase our knowledge, coupled with evidence that points strongly toward evolutionary process. Because we believe in a loving God, we should not imagine that God would be so perverse as to present us with a preponderance of evidence that only served to deceive. Current evolutionary understanding is not entirely without shortcomings; still, we should acknowledge that evolution is currently the best explanation of God’s mechanics of creation.

I want to try to assure Bobbi that this should not create any crisis of faith for her. Science and faith, in their finest moments, are not at war with each other; they are merely examining two related but different issues. To quote Migliore:

“To try to equate the scientific description of the origin of the world with the symbolic and metaphorical affirmations of the biblical narratives of creation is, as Karl Barth once put it, like trying to compare the sound of a vacuum cleaner with that of an organ. The language of science and the language of faith must be recognized in their distinctiveness; one should not be collapsed into the other. And the claim that only one of those languages is the voice of truth and alone provides access to reality is simply unfounded and arrogant.”

Finally, I want to talk with Mary and Bobbi together. I want to speak frankly that Mary’s earthly life is coming to an end, and that the two of them should concentrate on appreciating their limited remaining time together. I would remind them that they know that both are committed believers and have the assurance of resurrection. Because of that, their theological differences in these matters are of secondary importance, and are only adding stress to an already difficult time. I would encourage them to continue to discuss their beliefs with each other honestly – not in anger, but carefully listening to each other. I would ask them to consider the suggestions that I’ve made to each of them as they continued their conversation. But regardless of these differences, I would remind them of the words of Scripture: “Now I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you be in agreement and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same purpose” (1 Cor. 1:10); and “Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God” (1 Jn 4:7).
"By nature, i prefer brevity." - John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, p. 685.

"Never waste your time trying to explain yourself to people who are committed to misunderstanding you." - Anonymous

"Oh sure, every once in a while a turd floated by, but other than that it was just fine." - Joe A., 2011

I'll answer your other comments later, but my primary priority for the rest of the evening is to get drunk." - Klaus, 12/31/14
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
ZetaBoards - Free Forum Hosting
Free Forums. Reliable service with over 8 years of experience.
Learn More · Sign-up Now
« Previous Topic · The New Coffee Room · Next Topic »
Add Reply