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Suffering and the Courage of God: Exploring How Grace & Suffering Meet
As the recent tsunami disaster reveals, there is widespread discussion and disagreement about God's will and suffering - especially about what is traditionally called "natural evil." In most Christian teaching, God is transcendent, "above" the suffering, "beholding" it. God may sympathize, help, empower, and save, but God isn't trapped in the midst of it like the rest of us. For people with a belief in God, the onset of suffering often throws one into an acute sense of a chasm between the divine and the human.
According to Robert Morris, a pastor, spiritual director, and a chronic sufferer from depression, the biblical picture of God is radically different from this view. God's desire is to include us as participants in the divine life - to make us "partakers of the divine nature" in all that that entails. At the heart of this invitation to participate in God's own life is God's gracious participation in our suffering.
This innovative approach to reconciling human suffering and the nature of God focuses on how to look beyond easy answers, toward God's own suffering, moving from the position of victim to victor . Morris' own experience of chronic depression is a thread throughout the book, describing how one can move from meaningless suffering to suffering in a redemptive, healing way.
According to Robert Morris, a pastor, spiritual director, and a chronic sufferer from depression, the biblical picture of God is radically different from this view. God's desire is to include us as participants in the divine life - to make us "partakers of the divine nature" in all that that entails. At the heart of this invitation to participate in God's own life is God's gracious participation in our suffering.
This innovative approach to reconciling human suffering and the nature of God focuses on how to look beyond easy answers, toward God's own suffering, moving from the position of victim to victor . Morris' own experience of chronic depression is a thread throughout the book, describing how one can move from meaningless suffering to suffering in a redemptive, healing way.
- GenresTheology
160 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 2005
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April 8, 2019
A personal and insightful invitation to suffer redemptively. Robert Corin Morris knows suffering. He shares eloquently his story of depression and bipolar disorder and gives us the light he found in that "mothering Dark." Prayer, as an openness to God's presence in all of our pain, was elemental in his survival. The courage of God in God's suffering, especially in Jesus, gives us courage. But it takes practice. We must not only change our minds but we must practice loving, understanding and enjoying the presence of God to embrace the darkness as a place of communion with God. -Ben
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