> It cracks me up how easily threads can be diverted from the original post.
>

And see? Now you've gone and made me re-read that thread, which in turn made me want to post something on the topic of theodicy -- God's righteousness, or the lack thereof. Not what you had in mind, but that's the craziness of this here Message Forum. :-)

Theodicy is the hot topic for theologians in the post-modern era, because the "problem of evil" occupies so much of popular thinking about Christianity. If God is all that the Bible claims, the argument goes, then how can we reconcile God's goodness and omnipotence with the presence of so much evil in the world?

There's a lot to be said on both sides of this problem that I don't really want to go into. I can say right up front that I don't have an intellectually watertight "solution", which puts me in the good company of about 99.9999% of other people who have attacked the problem of evil.

What crosses my mind now, as at other times, is how unlike the author of the book of Job we are. Job arrives at the conclusion (in so many words) that he has done wrong to reckon God's righteousness by the importance of his (Job's) own life and doings. He learns that as blameless as he has tried to be, he (Job) is utterly unqualified to judge the righteousness of God himself. It's simply beyond the pale of his understanding, and that despite the fact that God does condescend to express what righteousness is in human terms, and expects us to practice that righteousness with his aid.

We, on the other hand, hardly think whether or not our mortal, and moral, position qualifies us to assess the righteousness of God. Framing the entire problem of evil in terms of human suffering, we lay bare our unexamined root assumption that we are the center of the universe. C.S. Lewis expresses it well in his essay "God in the Dock", in which he points out that at earlier points in human history, men implicitly behaved as though God (or gods) were in a position of judgement over them; today men implicitly act as though they are in a position of judgement over God, to be persuaded either to forgive or condemn God's infractions against justice.

I wonder how differently we might frame the problem of evil if we were inclined to discount the significance of our own suffering, and instead view the problem from God's position to the extent that we're able. It is truly said that "God suffers most" -- and on our account too. I think it would incline us to find a solution to the problem of evil in joining with God to fight evil, rather than in bringing suit against God for failing to clean up after our own horrible mess.

Iss