Iliff School of Theology

Theodicy and Tragedy

Winter 2015

Rev. Dr. Jason C. Whitehead, Ph.D

jwhitehead@iliff.edu

“Without pain, how could we know joy?' This is an old argument in the field of thinking about suffering and its stupidity and lack of sophistication could be plumbed for centuries but suffice it to say that the existence of broccoli does not, in any way, affect the taste of chocolate.”

― John Green, The Fault in Our Stars

“The whole image is that eternal suffering awaits anyone who questions God's infinite love. That's the message we're brought up with, isn't it? Believe or die! Thank you, forgiving Lord, for all those options.”

― Bill Hicks

“The nature of compassion isn't coming to terms with your own suffering and applying it to others: It's knowing that other folks around you suffer and, no matter what happens to you, no matter how lucky or unlucky you are, they keep suffering. And if you can do something about that, then you do it, and you do it without whining or waving your own fuckin' cross for the world to see. You do it because it's the right thing to do.”

― John Connolly, Dark Hollow

Required Books:

• Bloom, Paul. (2012). Just babies: The origins of good and evil . Crown Press ISBN-13: 978- 0307886842
• Moe-Lobeda, Cynthia (2013). Resisting Structural Evil: Love as Ecological-Economic Vocation . Minneapolis: Fortress Press. ISBN-10: 1451462670
• Poole, Adrian. (2005), Tragedy: A very short introduction . Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2005. 0192802356
• Wiesel, Elie.  (2006). Night .  A New Translation by Marion Wiesel; With a New Preface by the Author. New York : Hill and Wang, a division of Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2006. ISBN: 9780374500016. DS135.R73 W54813

• Readings in bold type and noted with ** are optional for Masters Students and required for Doctoral Students. Masters Students may wish to read the abstracts of these articles as they may be referenced in class.

   

  The number next to the the "Readings" heading is the number of pages assigned for a particular week. I have tried to limit this to around 100 pages of reading or under for masters students. Due to the heaviness of this particular subject, please do your best, which is all I can ask. Some readings will be more poignant for you, others challenges, and some even familiar.

   

  Week 1 – The History of Human Suffering

  Readings (121 pages)

              Elie Wiesel – Night

              Carl Dennis – New Year’s Eve

              Audio – Amy Erickson – God as Enemy in Job

              The Problem of Evil – Word document

              Lecture Notes

             **Leary et al. – Teasing, Rejection, and Violence: Case Studies on the School Shootings (15 pages)

  Week 2 – What is evil, suffering, disaster, horror?

  Readings (65 pages)

              Louise Erdrich – Love Medicine

              The Encyclopedia of Religion – Evil

              Larry Graham – Pastoral Theology and Catastrophic Disaster

              Michael Horne – Evil Acts not Evil People: their characteristics and contexts (pgs.: 674-677, beginning with "Defining Evil")

              (selections) David Crump – The Social Psychology of Evil: Can the Law Prevent Groups from Making Good people go Bad? (Part I, Part II: A-D, Part III:B,               Part IV: C, Part V)

              Definitions of Evil and Suffering

              Lecture Notes

             **Anne Verhoef – The relationship between Evil and Transcendence: New Possibilities? (12 pages)

  Week 3 – MLK, Jr. Day – No Class

  Readings (89 pages)

              Wendy Farley – Tragic Vision and Divine Compassion, excerpts

              Adrian Poole – Intro, Ch. 1-3

              Shelly Rambo – Theologians Engaging Trauma

              Benjamin Larson – Participation and Evil: The Problem of Doing Evil when Attempting to Fight Evil

              ** Calvin O. Schrag – Otherness and the problem of evil: How does that which is other become evil? (10 pages)

  Week 4 – What is theodicy and/or tragedy?

  Readings (55 pages)

              Wendy Farley – The Pain Dispelling draft

              Mark Scott – Theodicy at the Margins

              Adrian Poole – Ch. 4-6

              ** Wendy Farley – Reflections on Truth in a Postmodern Age (38 pages)

  Lecture Notes

  A Pastoral Theodicy

  Week 5 – God, Evil, and Suffering

  Readings (83 pages)

              Susan Nelson – Facing Evil

              Larry Graham – On God and Human Suffering

              Charles Hartshorne – Omnipotence – Preface, Ch. 1

              Amy Erickson – God as Enemy in Job’s Speeches

  Lecture Notes

  Week 6 – God, Evil, and Suffering

  Readings (85 pages)

              Charles Hartshorne – Omnipotence – Chapter 3

              Stephen Davis – Free Will and Evil

              Carol Troupe – Human Suffering in Black Theology

              Paul Leer-Salvesen – Theology after the Massacre in Norway

              ** Robin May Schott – Introduction: Special Issue on “Feminist Philosophy and the Problem of Evil” (10 pages)

  Week 7 – Systemic and Structural Evil

  Readings (112 pages)

              Cynthia Moe-Lobeda – Resisting Structural Evil – Introduction, Ch 2-4

  Prezi Lecture

  lecture pdf 

   

  Week 8 – Compassion, Love, Community, and Moral Ethics

  Readings (102 pages)

              Bernard Dauenhauer – Responding to Evil

              Cynthia Moe-Lobeda – Resisting Structural Evil – Ch 6, 7, 10  

  Prezi

  PDF Download

  Week 9 – The Cognitive Science of Good and Evil

  Readings (100 pages)

              6 Surprising Scientific Findings about Good and Evil           

              Paul Bloom – Just Babies: The origins of Good and Evil – Preface, Ch. 1-3

  Week 10 – Cognitive Science/Doctoral Papers/Presentations

  Readings (110 pages)

  Course Notes

              Paul Bloom – Just Babies: The origins of Good and Evil – Ch. 4-7

   

  (updated)

• Course Overview and Goals

  Course Goals (From Iliff’s Curricular Goals)

   

  • Demonstrate basic awareness of a range of religious traditions and an emerging capacity to engage in comparative analysis between traditions around a particular topic
  • Identify and critically evaluate the symbolic systems and religious meanings at play in everyday events and interactions, institutional structures, and cultural artifacts
  • Think theologically in a contemporary context and articulate a constructive theological position.
  • Critically engage historical theological expressions of Christianity in relation to contemporary events and/or situations
  • Identify and articulate their constructive theological position on an issue, current event, or traditional Christian doctrinal category with clarity
  • Engage in social analysis of contemporary religious traditions and institutions in order to assess current religious practices and to design meaningful practices of ministry within particular contexts
  • Demonstrate personal and professional self-awareness and emerging competency in characteristic practices of religious leadership
  • Demonstrate capacity to perform and to assess characteristic practices of religious leadership in ways that are sensitive to contextual realities and relationships: preaching, teaching, administering, leading worship, and pastoral caregiving
  • Establish an effective presence as a leader in the vocational context to which they feel called, and demonstrate adequate self-awareness of their characteristic styles of interaction, commitments, strengths and limitations as they move into new contexts
  • Clearly interpret one's beliefs and behavior to the community one serves
  • Demonstrate personal and professional self-awareness and emerging competency in characteristic practices of religious leadership
  • Establish an effective presence as a leader in the vocational context to which they feel called, and demonstrate adequate self-awareness of their characteristic styles of interaction, commitments, strengths and limitations as they move into new contexts

   

  General Goals

   

  • Students will identify and critically evaluate the ways in which their personal, religious, and cultural experience, along with their theology, moral orientation, and vocational formation shapes their response to tragedy and theodicy.
  • Students will broaden their understanding of tragedy and theodicy through a basic awareness of a range of approaches and comparative analysis of how theodicy and tragedy is constructed and discussed in a variety of disciplines.
  • Students will identify and articulate their constructive theological position on tragic suffering and the problem of evil.
  • Students will develop a pastoral awareness of their understanding of theodicy and tragedy as it develops in conversation with people attempting to make sense of their own tragedy and suffering.
  • Students will describe strategies for their continued spiritual development and self-care that helps them connect with a sense of the sacred in responding to tragic suffering

• Class Discussion/Participation (30%) - Basically, you read, participate/contribute in meaningful ways to our discussion of the topics at hand (without dominating the conversation). Classes live and die relative to their ability to speak and hear one another as we wrestle with the materials presented.

  Weekly Reading Postings (20%) - Each week, on the Sunday before class, students are required to post their thoughts or questions concerning the readings for that week. These responses are to be limited to 200-300 words at most. To fulfill this assignment you may post something original, respond (respectfully and compassionately) to another student, or discuss some of the questions a reading raised for you.

  Final Project (50%) -

       Master's Students (Choose one)

  • First Choice: Case Study (8 page maximum) on a case from your pastoral care practice or from the readings. See posted details for the Case Study in Canvas.
  • Second Choice: Book Review (8 page maximum) from a book on theodicy from the Book Review List, or on another book approved by the instructor.  
  • Third Choice: Final Project (10 page maximum plus references) in which the student examines the issues of the course from theological and professional perspectives. (Topics are to be cleared with the instructors).   

       Doctoral Students

  • Instead of doing a case study or book review, please write a major academic paper (not to exceed fifteen pages double-spaced, excluding footnotes) in which you examine the issues of the course from theological and professional perspectives. (Please clear topics with the instructor).
  • Doctoral students will present their papers to the class during our final week together.

• Commenting Guidelines

   

  Here are some quick and simple guidelines for posting your comments on our blog this quarter:

   

  • Please remember that this is an adult learning context; we are here to share our experiences, knowledge and questions about the topic of Theodicy and Tragedy

  • Personal attacks, harsh language, excessive profanity, defamatory, racist, sexist, and derogatory language is unnecessary in this class.

  • If you find a resource that would be helpful to the class but may contain objectionable material, please run it by the instructors before posting it to the comment board.

  • The comment sections are not confidential nor are they anonymous; they serve as a place of discussion, please treat it like you would treat a classroom.

   

  Structure

   

  • Please take care to use correct language and grammar;

  • Do not use all capital letters (text yelling);

  • Post only your original work; if you are quoting a text or other source please attribute the work appropriately;

  • Limit your comments to the topic of the original post and/or our readings.

   

  Content

   

  • Please keep the content of your comments relevant to the weekly topic being discussed.

  • The most helpful comments will:

  • Refer to the blog post;

  • Make a connection between the post and the readings;

  • Refer to experiences, personal knowledge, etc. as it pertains to the text and/or post.

  • Other forms of comments may take shape as:

  • Question(s) brought up by the reading or post, referring to one or either as a source for your question.

  • You can also fulfill your commenting assignment by answering a question.

   

  I realize the limitations of this form of communication. I will do my best to moderate and respond to particular comments as needed. 

• Possible Books for Review

  • Alexander, Michelle. (2010).  The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Color blindness. New York: The New Press.
  • Baron-Cohen, Simon. (2011). The Science of Evil: On Empathy and the Origins of Cruelty. New York: Basic Books. ISBN - 9780465031429
  • Beozzo, Jose Oscar, and Virgil Elizondo.  The Return of the Plague.  Maryknoll, NY: Orbis,  1997. 1-57075-130-7.  BT160.R488 1997.
  • Camus, Albert. (1948).  The Plague. New York: Knopf. 0-670720219
  • Cohn-Sherbok, Dan, ed.  Holocaust Theology: A Reader.  New York: New York University Press.  0-8147-1619-9.  BM645.H6 H69 2002.
  • Davaney, Sheila Greeve. Divine Power:  A Study of Karl Barth and Charles Hartshorne.  Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1984.
  • Davis, Stephen T.  Encountering Evil: Live Options in Theodicy: A New Edition. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2001.  0-664-22251-X.  BT160E.53 2001.
  • Farley, Wendy. (1990) Tragic Vision and Divine Compassion.  Louisville KY: Westminster John Knox Press.  ISBN 0 664250 96 3 (Paper). BT160.F375 1990.
  • Hart, David Bentley. (2011). The Doors of the Sea: Where was God in the Tsunami?. Eerdmans Publishing Company. ISBN: 0802866867
  • Hartshorne, Charles.  Omnipotence and Other Theological Mistakes.  Albany, NY: State University of New York, 1984.
  • Jones, Serene. (2009). Trauma and Grace: Theology in a ruptured world.  Louisville: KY. Westminster John Knox. 9780664234102 RC552.P67 J664 2009.
  • Mohrmann, Margaret E., and Mark J. Hanson.  Pain Seeking Understanding: Suffering, Medicine, and Faith.  Cleveland, OH: Pilgrim. 0-8298-1354-3.  BT160.P17 1999.
  • Pinn, Anthony P., Ed.  Moral Evil and Redemptive Suffering: A History of Theodicy in African-American Thought.  Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida.  0-8130-2454-4.  BT82.7.M67 2002,
  • Rambo, Shelly. (2010). Spirit and trauma: A theology of remaining. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox. BT732.7 R34 2010. 978-0-664-23503-1
  • Sands, Kathleen.  Escape from Paradise: Evil and Tragedy in Feminist Theology.  Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg Fortress, 1994.  ISBN 0-8006-2636-2
  • Swinton, John.  Raging with Compassion: Pastoral Responses to the Problem of Evil.  Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2007.  ISBN: 9780802829979. BT160.S986 2007 

  See Taylor Library's list of online book sellers for purchasing options.

   

• Professional Confidentiality

  We will follow the canons of professional confidentiality for all personal disclosures and clinical deliberations in the course. The reporting laws of the State of Colorado will be followed with respect to child abuse and neglect, homicide or suicide. All cases in which there is reasonable suspicion that one of these actions is imminent or actually occurring shall be reported to the instructors, and to the proper authorities. We will work together to establish an appropriate pastoral relationship with all parties facing these crises.

  It is important to remember that this is not a course in therapy, although crisis counseling will be seen as one of the vehicles for embodied pastoral care. Students will learn about appropriate styles and skills of communication that are part of a one on one spiritual care conversation; they will also think contextually about persons as part of larger bio-psycho-social-spiritual systems.

  This course teaches a broader context of care that is not limited to one-on-one helping conversations. Upon completing this course, students should have a basic understanding of the theological foundations for pastoral care as well as strategies for approaching issues in care and counseling that are informed by social and ethical analysis.
  

• Policies and Services

  Incompletes:  If incompletes are allowed in this course, see the Master's Student Handbook for Policies and Procedures.

  Pass/Fail:  Masters students wishing to take the class pass/fail should discuss this with the instructor by the second class session.

  Academic Integrity and Community Covenant:  All students are expected to abide by Iliff’s statement on Academic Integrity, as published in the Masters Student Handbook, or the Joint PhD Statement on Academic Honesty, as published in the Joint PhD Student Handbook, as appropriate.  All participants in this class are expected to be familiar with Iliff’s Community Covenant.

  Accommodations:  Iliff engages in a collaborative effort with students with disabilities to reasonably accommodate student needs.   Students are encouraged to contact their assigned advisor to initiate the process of requesting accommodations.  The advising center can be contacted at advising@iliff.edu or by phone at 303-765-1146. 

  Writing Lab:  Grammar and organization are important for all written assignments.  Additional help is available from the Iliff Writing Lab, which is available for students of any level who need help beginning an assignment, organizing thoughts, or reviewing a final draft. 

  Inclusive Language:  It is expected that all course participants will use inclusive language in speaking and writing, and will use terms that do not create barriers to classroom community.