2013 Zenos Lectures

Evil: Conversations with the Bible and with Contemporary Voices 
Monday, February 18, 2013 at 1:00 P.M. and 4:00 P.M.

Dr. Carol Newsom, Charles Howard Candler Professor of Old Testament, Candler School of Theology, Emory University is the 2013 Lecturer.

The philospher Susan Neiman suggests that evil be thought of as that which “shatters our trust in the world.” Those traditions that do not see the problem of evil as critical construe humans as being “at home” in the world. The encounter with evil, painful as it is, can be incorporated within enveloping structures of transcendent meaning. Those traditions in which the problem of evil becomes acute construe humans as “homeless,” lonely beings unsupported in the face of evil. The Israelite wisdom tradition can be read as conducting a prolonged and thoughtful conversation about the problem of meaning in the face of evil.

The first talk looks at two divergent voices in the wisdom tradition, Proverbs and Ecclesiastes. Proverbs has a very positive estimate of the world as a trustworthy and supportive environment for the human quest for the construction of a moral order. Indeed, it has often been criticized as not taking evil seriously enough. Closer examination, however, shows that Proverbs has a quite nuanced and sophisticated understanding of the nature of the origins and operation of both good and evil. Its confidence in the resiliency of good and the fragility of evil are ultimately tied to its claims about creation itself. The book of Ecclesiastes, however, poses the problem of evil in a way that suggests that the human quest for a world in which good is met with good may be utterly unsupported by any cosmic or transcendent structures. God’s ordering of the cosmos may not include support for human moral order. This is a way of framing the problem of evil that is increasingly familiar since the Enlightenment and is especially prominent in the contemporary scientifically oriented cosmology. Humans are on their own. God, if God exists, has set up the physical order of the cosmos; but the order of creation has no inbuilt bias toward good rather than evil. In this perspective humans are “homeless” and unsheltered. The two sharply different visions of Proverbs and Ecclesiastes construct an implicit conversation. But in the book of Job one sees the issues framed explicitly.

The second talk, then, focuses on the book of Job. No other book in the Bible pursues with such vividness and passion the threat of evil to the meaningfulness of the world. The prose tale presents Job as a person very much “at home” in a world that makes sense. Even unimaginable violence and loss can be incorporated into that world without its shattering–or so it seems. In the poetic dialogue, however, one sees Job painfully poised between a hope that God is guarantor of a moral order that nurtures good and rejects evil and a fear that God may rather be arbitrary or even the hostile source of evil. The climax of the book–Job’s final speech and God’s reply from the whirlwind, seem to frame the issues very much in terms of whether humans are at home or homeless in the cosmos, as Job articulates his moral vision in terms of his home and village, and God replies with imagery of a vast and strange cosmos which seems to have little place for Job and his concerns. And yet, Job appears to be comforted and returns to begin his life again. How can one understand this? The question of human grief in the face of evil and in the context of a vast and strange cosmos has most recently been taken up by the film director Terence Malick in Tree of Life This film can be understood as a meditation on the speeches of God to Job from the whirlwind. Without flinching from hard realities, Malick affirms that the evil we encounter need not make us homeless. We are not insulated from evil, but we are supported by transcendent love.

A reception will follow the second lecture.

The Zenos Lectures are free and open to the public; students and groups from congregations are welcome. Please contact Martha Brown with any questions you may have.