Eleonore Stump: Wandering in darkness: narrative and the problem of suffering

Abstract

Ivan Karamazov’s statement in The Brothers Karamazov of his “rebellion” against God has become a canonical text in modern discussions of theodicy. In that passage, Ivan’s approach to the problem of evil is marked by a few key elements. First, he focuses on particular narratives of human suffering. Second, the narratives he refers to all involve the suffering of young children. Third, the stories all end tragically after the children are unspeakably mistreated by adults. Finally, on the basis of these stories, Ivan rejects any divine plan for the universe that requires such suffering on the part of children. One could think of Eleonore Stump as, in most ways, the antithesis of Ivan Karamazov in her recent major work on the problem of suffering, Wandering in Darkness. In this book, she does follow Karamazov in making the use of narratives central to her discussion. However, she omits children from her account of human suffering, and instead focuses on stories about mentally fully functional adult human beings. These narratives all involve significant kinds of human suffering and loss, but the stories conclude positively, not tragically. Then, on the basis of such endings, Stump argues in defense of there being a justified divine purpose behind such suffering. While Ivan Karamazov rebels against God in light of specific narratives of child suffering, Stump seeks to convince her readers that God’s love and providential care is behind all cases of unwilling, innocent suffering that come to mentally fully functional adults. Before turning to the heart of her view of the problem of suffering (it is specifically the problem of suffering, rather than the problem of evil, that is her concern,) a few preliminary items need to be mentioned. Stump emphasizes that her book is, using Alvin Plantinga’s distinction, a defense and not a theodicy. She does not claim that she is articulating the “actual intentions and reasons for allowing evil on the part of God”