Recently, I have been part of a book study of Patrick J. Deneen’s “Why Liberalism Failed”. Three conversations into Deneen and I find myself continually frustrated by his loose use of the word Liberalism to mean anything and everything corrosive in contemporary culture, ranging from radical libertarianism to deconstructive relativism to unrestrained consumer capitalism. I also find he is quick to demonize liberalism– or rather his version of “liberalism”-- while very reticent to acknowledge the good liberalism has brought, which has never appeared en masse in any large society on earth. Goods such as universal suffrage, modern science, sustained engagement across radically different cultures, and civil rights for all kinds of people historically excluded or diminished across cultures (women, POC, LGBTQ, disabled, etc.). When I decide where to eat at night, or where to work on the weekday, or where to worship on the weekend, I have the choice between dozens of cultures and thousands of different opportunities, all within 15 minutes of my house. And that doesn’t happen without Liberalism. So, in order to balance the ledger, I would like to present my corrective to Deneen, in what I am calling the three strands of Classical Liberalism.
Over the years, no theological subject has consumed quite as much of my time in sermons and pastoral counseling and teaching and writing as the subject of Theodicy has. Theodicy is the classical problem of how to view evil, suffering, and death in light of the claim that God is real, and God really is good and powerful and wise. It is the question of how to justify this Good God in light of a world filled to the brim with horrific suffering, or at least how to justify us who believe there is such a God. I have written essays about it, made charts detailing it, and reviewed books about it. And almost all of that has been spent in describing the objective state of affairs in the world in light of Theodicy: Is God real or not? Is God good or not?
But I have not spent a whole lot of time talking about how the problems– and “solutions”-- of Theodicy function for those of us who are engaged in this discussion. Here I would like to dive a little deeper into an area I skim the surface of in my longest essay on the Monstrosity of Theodicy:
This is a bunch of incoherent babble to make us think hard about our incredible love affair with the God of the universe, our astounding infidelities against God, and God's incredible grace to heal and restore us through Christ. Everything on this site is copyright © 1996-2023 by Nathan L. Bostian so if you use it, please cite me. You can contact me at natebostian [at] gmail [dot] com
