Very many thanks to all those who responded to my query about the Christian explanation - theological, not technical - of this dreadful disaster. I have had no less than 45 responses and there are more still coming in, mostly to the Philo website.
I must say, though, that the quality of the replies was not as high as I would have hoped: there were careful and considered answers from Jesuits at one end of the Christian spectrum and Quakers at the other, but in between there were mostly the usual predictable mouthings about Original Sin, complete with Biblical quotations, and in a surprising number of answers there was no trace of any human feeling of compassion for those who died or for the survivors.
I have extracted the interesting and original pieces for a paper I shall write in the New Year and will delete the original post.
Now I really must help Jennie to pack.......
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Gervase McGillivray
Over the past year all my weblogs became infested with boring comments so I have changed the URLs and made most of my websites accessible only to a few friends. A long farewell to everyone else. Anyone is welcome to comment in this blog.
Gervase
Gervase McGillivray
ABOUT ME
I lecture at a famous Scottish University.
My interests are:
Politics, philosophy, linguistics, comparative religion, Scottish history, Icelandic sagas, wine, John Knox, Gàidhlig
2 comments:
"...in a surprising number of answers there was no trace of any human feeling of compassion for those who died or for the survivors."
I want to apologize. I think I wrote one of those answers you were thinking of when you wrote this, and thinking over what I wrote, I realize how wrong I was. I wrote a theologically correct answer, but there wasn't any love in it--no compassion for those who had died or their families--I wasn't even thinking about them. I failed to give a truly Christian answer, because I didn't do what Christ would have done. Jesus has always been more concerned with people than theology--His love and grace were the two things that drew people to Him. And now I see that I've failed to do the same.
So...I'm sorry! Please forgive me for giving a thought-out but heartless answer to your question. The world doesn't need more graceless Christians.
At the end of the day, when you ask for an explanation for why any terrible thing happens, you're only going to end up with various personal results of people struggling to make sense of things that don't make sense.
You won't get the "Christian" explanation, certainly, as there isn't a pat "Christian" explanation.
It's an age-old question, one that most wonder about, but I don't think anyone has ever satisfactorily answered it yet.
Jesus didn't teach philosophy; he taught us how to live.
I do agree with perfectlyvocal (and yourself too, Gervase, judging from your subsequent posts) in thinking perhaps rather than get stuck on the question "why?" it's best to ask, "well, what can I do to help?"
You'd likely get quite the range of answers to that one from people!
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