Q & R: God’s agency
Here’s the Q:
[I think] you do not believe God causes things like my cancer, or tsunamis, which is helpful (and I think I have read you to say something like that before). But I still have trouble with a God who would appear to only answer prayers related to one suffering child, but not the many many others. And the same for a God who created the world as it is, with this much suffering, which seems beyond anything that is necessary. Some believe that suffering came about because of man’s fall, but I suspect you might agree that death and decay seem to have been baked into the universe even before man evolved.
Here’s the R:
The question of suffering challenges us to rethink first the issue of God’s agency (the kind of relationship we think God has with the universe – one of dominating control? crushing will? disinterest and distance? guiding presence and suffering solidarity?) and then the issue of God’s character (is God understood more as a dominating potentate … or as a suffering, indwelling, saving, guiding, loving presence … or ?) It’s a huge subject, too big for a blog post, but I think you’ll find a lot of wisdom here … http://www.ravenfoundation.org/blogs/in-the-beginning/suffering-and-the-god-of-love
A cry from the heart for compassion, justice, peace, and equality in Gaza and Israel
June 23, 2025
"It is clear that the killing of over 1200 Israelis on October 7th of 2023 was unacceptable. But the killing of Palestinians after that
in the tens of thousands including women and children is not acceptable."
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