Introduction and Chapter 1: The Cultures of Suffering

Walking with God Through Pain and Suffering (by Tim Keller)

Introduction and Chapter 1: The Cultures of Suffering

Introduction

• Suffering is everywhere and unavoidable.
• The purpose of the study is to help us take life seriously and anticipate suffering and understand its purpose and meaning in our lives.
• In the face of suffering, many deny the existence of God, but just as many find God through grief and pain.
• Suffering has the power to pull non-Christians to God and to pull Christians into a deeper experience of God's reality, love, and grace.
• Suffering is one of the main themes of the Bible.
• The central figure of the Bible is Jesus Christ, a man of sorrows.
• The great theme of the Bible is how God brings fullness of joy not just despite but through suffering.

Chapter 1: The Cultures of Suffering

 

Training for Suffering

• Nothing is more important than to learn how to maintain a life of purpose in the midst of painful adversity.
• A society/culture can greatly serve its members by helping them face terrible evil and adversity.
• Modern western culture is more unprepared to face suffering than perhaps any other culture today or in the history of the world.

Edified by Our Miseries

• Non-western cultures help their people to be “edified by misery.” They perceive the causes of suffering in highly spiritual, communal, and moral terms.
• Moralistic View
• Self-transcendent View
• Fatalistic View
• Dualistic View

 

Interrupted by Our Miseries

Western culture is very much different from these other religious and philosophical systems of dealing with suffering.

• Western culture adopts a naturalistic view of the universe.
• There is no God, no invisible spiritual forces, no eternal bliss, no moral battle between good and evil.
• It is a universe of blind physical forces, and people fall victim to bad circumstances by mere chance.
• Suffering has no purpose. It has no meaning at all.
• By and large, the goal of Western culture has been personal freedom and happiness. 
• Pain and suffering are at complete odds with freedom and happiness, so in the secular worldview suffering is to be avoided at all costs.
• This is why suffering is so traumatic for citizens of Western culture. It has no place, no meaning, no purpose. It is an interruption of our lives, not a part of it.
• The sufferer is a victim, under attack from natural forces devoid of intentionality.
• In older cultures suffering has been seen as an expected part of a coherent life story, a crucial way to live life well and to grow as a person and a soul. But in Western culture, if the meaning of life is individual freedom and happiness, then suffering is of no possible use. It is to be avoided, managed, minimized as much as possible.

 

Victims of Our Miseries

• Because suffering has no meaning and happens by blind chance, the sufferers are victims.
• The responsibility for responding to suffering is taken away from the sufferer.
• Older cultures viewed suffering as an opportunity for the sufferer to do some internal “soul work”—learning patience, wisdom, and faithfulness.
• Contemporary Western culture does not see suffering as an opportunity or a test.
• Sufferers are referred to experts to help them cope with the symptoms of their suffering without addressing the underlying issues or life story. These experts include psychologists, doctors, therapists, etc.

 

Outraged by Our Miseries

Since suffering has no meaning, there are only two responses in the secular worldview:

• Manage the symptoms (pain, stress, anxiety, etc.)
• Look for the cause of the pain and eliminate it.
• Older cultures sought ways to be edified by their sufferings by looking inside, but Western people are often simply outraged by their suffering—and they seek to change things outside so that the suffering never happens again.
• So, in the secular worldview suffering is an accident. Our response to it is to find a solution or technique to eliminate the material/natural cause of suffering. The goal is a better society in the here and now with no thought of an eternal reality.

 

Christianity among the Cultures

• The Christian view of suffering is completely unique from the secular as well as other religious and philosophical views.
• Unlike the fatalistic view, Christianity does not put emphasis on human honor and glory. Christians cry out to God in prayer, not accepting circumstances as that of blind fate.
• Unlike Buddhists, Christians believe that suffering is real, not an illusion.
• Unlike moralistic views like karma, Christians believe that suffering is often unjust and disproportionate. Life is not always fair. Suffering is not always the result of a direct cause/effect relationship with someone’s personal mistakes or transgressions (Job/Jesus Christ).
• Unlike the dualistic view, Christianity does not see suffering as a means of working off your sinful debts by virtue of the quality of your endurance of pain.
• The Christian understanding of suffering is dominated by the idea of grace. In Christ we have received forgiveness, love, and adoption into the family of God. These goods are undeserved, and that frees us from the temptation to feel proud of our suffering.
• Christianity teaches that, contra fatalism, suffering is overwhelming; contra Buddhism, suffering is real; contra karma, suffering is often unfair; but contra secularism, suffering is meaningful. There is a purpose to it, and if faced rightly, it can drive us like a nail deep into the love of God.