Greek European Culture

Greek history, Orthodox Christianity, Philosophy

The problem of Theodicy again
















Who does not live like animals, but has a real interest in spiritual progress, only he meets also the condition to solve the paradoxes of Theodicy, by thinking of the hardships he had suffered in his own life, whence he discovers, if he has not already discovered and realized, that there is no ‘disaster’ or ‘adversity’ that did not brought him to the most favorable point toward his spiritual progress. One by one all the ills of his life will be revealed without any doubt benefactions. If this won’t happen, he can be sure that he has not yet really started to be interested in himself. Therefore, let him have this as a criterion: he will have begun to leave the life of an animal, when he will have ceased to judge God, discerning everywhere clearly, in what looks like a terrible tragedy as well as in the smallest setback, His goodness and benevolence absolutely certain. As St Sophrony Sakharov writes, “During the course of years devoted to exercise in order for us to live according to God’s will, many times we will be amazed by the mathematical accuracy of God’s Providence for us” (from Sakharov, We Shall See Him As He Is).

Then one understands also that disasters should be even bigger, that God chooses to help us in slower and milder ways than what our progress really needs, ie that He avoids to discomfort us, He ‘pampers’ us, I would say. When such a subtle and mild intervention occurs in our lives, easily one understands in what an abyss of dementia are found those who see Him as ‘wild’ or ‘indifferent’ or ‘unjust’.

2 Comments

  1. Jack

    Thank you for taking the time to provide these insights. I will take what you have written to heart. I was prompted in large part to ask you about this because the dispensationalist “talk radio” crowd, in their hyper-literal simplicity, uses out of context the OT “god of war” as justification for war, no matter how unjust. I tried to imagine myself debating someone with that viewpoint, & knew I wouldn’t do a very good job.

  2. Searching for justification of war in the Bible means that we decided to declare ourselves Gods – unless President X confessed that God appeared to him and ordered him to make war… During its one thousand years of life Byzantium never used the Bible as excuse of war – and only very cautiously accepted as fair the concept of a purely defensive war. On the contrary in the West we saw the Crusades, we saw the burning of millions of people because they were ‘heretics’, even the attack against Constantinople… There are obviously other reasons for all of this, not the Bible.