Friday, May 10, 2013

Tragicless Suffering?

"...Gregory [the Great] does not so much answer the problem of innocent suffering, as suggest that given the Christian apparatus with which he views the problem, the problem in essence disappears. Questions about innocent suffering become irrelevant because there are no innocent sufferers.
"Along the way, Gregory finds ample evidence in the book of Job for original sin, fallen angels, demonic possession, and the surety of both resurrection and immortality -- all notions that render questions about innocent suffering obsolete, for in the final analysis Gregory uses survival after death to answer the problem of evil, along with the Divine Plan answer.
"Like other Christian commentators before him, Gregory removes what might be called the 'tragic element' of the text. An insoluble problem is replaced by exhortations to be patient because survival after death and a final reckoning will prove there is no tragedy, at least not for those who are saved. In the end Gregory resorts to a teleological resolution to the problem of evil, a resolution to take place beyond the grave."

-- The Image of the Biblical Job: A History, Volume Two: Job in the Medieval World, Stephen Vicchio, 2006, p. 36.

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