Human and Divine Suffering in Late Antiquity

Prof. Paul Gavrilyuk

Introduction and Orientation

1. Course overview: three main themes.

2. Methodological considerations.

3. Course requirements.

Apse Mosaic, 12th c. (frag.) San Clemente, Rome.

Problem of Evil

Job and his three friends

“It seems that God does not exist; because if one of two contraries be infinite, the other would be altogether destroyed. But the word "God" means that He is infinite goodness. If, therefore, God existed, there would be no evil discoverable; but there is evil in the world. Therefore God does not exist.”

--Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, I. 2. 3, obj. 1.

Aquinas: God always brings good out of evil

Really?

How can you be so sure?

Isn’t it a bit question-begging?

Is the resultant good great enough to justify evil?

Further questions

• Does the problem of evil have a satisfactory solution?

• What would count as such a solution?

Martyrdom and Persecution

• What kind of social, political and theological statement did the martyr’s public execution make?

• How did the early Church interpret the martyr’s experience of torture and death?

St. Sebastian

Greek Poets & Philosophers on Evil

• How was the problem approached in antiquity?• What was the message of the Greek tragedy?• What is evil?• What is the difference between moral and

natural evil?• What is the difference between genuine and

apparent evil?• What is the origin of evil?

Different types of biblical answers:

• Etiological Narrative• Lament, Reproach• Apocalypse• Wisdom Saying

• Silence• Ritual Activity (prayer; burial ceremony) • Evil-Destroying Action• Salvation History

Rival Soteriologies

• Tertullian vs. Marcion

• Irenaeus & Origen vs. Gnostics

• Augustine vs. Manicheans

“The Christian who takes the atonement seriously has no real need for theodicy.”

– Kenneth Surin, Theology and the Problem of Evil, p. 142.

Models of Atonement

RANSOM

SATISFACTION

PENAL SUBSTITUTION

SACRIFICE

EXAMPLARISM

CHRISTUS VICTOR

DEIFICATION

POLITICAL LIBERATION

The three main themes of our course

• Problem of evil

• Models of Atonement

• God’s participation in suffering

Divine suffering/ impassibility

• Does God suffer?

• Does God feel emotions or pain?

• How does the term “impassible” function in patristic thought?

• How does God participate in the suffering of Christ?

• How do the Bible and the Fathers address these questions?

Analyze this

Palatine Museum, Rome.

The Cross & Military Power

Attribution: RIC IX 14c xxxviii Siscia; Date: 367-375 ADObverse: D N GRATIANVS P F AVG, Reverse: GLORIA RO-MANORVM

Constantius II (337-361)

DNCONSTANTIVSPFAVG – Rosette diademed, draped and cuirassed bust left holding globe, N in right field/ FEL TEMP REPARATIO,

History is written by the victors

not the losers…

By the conquerors, not the conquered

Idealization ↔ demonization

History re-written to rehabilitate the “losers”

John Dewey (1859-1952)

--presentpast

“All history is written from the standpoint of

the present.”

Eusebius on Constantine:

“Our emperor, God’s friend, acting as interpreter to the Divine Logos, aims at recalling the whole human race to the knowledge of God.”

--Eusebius, In Praise of Constantine, II. 4.

Constantine’s head. Capitoline Museum.

A century later, however,a pagan historian remarked:

“Constantine was the origin and the beginning of the present destruction of the empire.”– Zosimus, New History, 2.

34 (ca. 500).

The ruins of ancient temples at the foot of Palatine. Rome.

Adolf von Harnack (1851-1930)

We study history in order to intervene in the course

of history.

presentpast

presentpast