God, Why Did You Do That? by Frederick Sontag

Abstract

BOOK REVIEWS God, Why Did You Do That? By FREDERICK SoNTAG. Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1970, Pp. 17Q. $Q.65. These essays are the result of a series of lectures given in the fall term of 1967-8 to Roman Catholic seminarians at Sant' Anselmo, the Benedictine International College in Rome. The provocative title asks a question of God; the contents attempt to make a tentative answer for him at least in outline form. Why is there evil in the world? This is something men have pondered since they began to think systematically. Their efforts to come to grips with this disturbing phenomenon have proceeded in a number of different directions. Theodicy indicates one that is a fair description of these reflections. But the question here is somewhat more nuanced than is often the case. It is not why there is evil but why such evil that man's successes are far fewer than they might have been and even at that are won with far more patience and effort expended than need have been. Not why evil of any sort but why evil of the precise sort that man meets-that is the context in which the author, a Professor of Philosophy at Pomona College, attempts to provide what can only be described as a reconceptualization of God. He expresses one conviction repeatedly, a very simple one; and that is this. Given the pervasiveness of evil in everyday life, problems that are at root philosophical and experientially unavoidable have a greater force than ever in our day. When man had achieved fewer successes in his efforts to humanize himself and his environment, the presence of pain, suffering, and anguish might and did in fact often seem to be the inevitable result of living. No longer so easily today. Then one might argue that a subsequent condition of creation by a personal God would necessarily be the presence of some evil in the world. But when man has accomplished so much (not perhaps in comparison with what is left to do but with what was the situation when he started) , this reasoning appears to be quite beside the point. One may think humanity has progressed by relying on its own collective resources or may wonder how civilization developed. But one who believes in a loving God finds it hard not to ask what sort of God really loves and yet is so excessively permissive. Was all the difficulty that is attached to human achievement really necessary to teach man his finite character? Could the conditions of human achievement have been made slightly less painful? Did God in creating have to choose an order in which man would succeed only 513 514 BOOK REVIEWS seldom, then with great effort, and often too late for the whole thing to benefit millions who could have profited so much from an earlier break-through? Not likely. But why then did God choose conditions of such back-and-heart breaking difficulty? This is the question the author poses. He maintains that one's concept of God may well change as a result of considering the problem of evil in this precise fashion. To put it another way that I think is fair to his position, one might look at the matter in this perspective. Man has always needed mental constructs to sustain his belief in God. Some seem to think the analogue required today is that of one with two ears always open to listen and understand. Such an image does in fact help to overcome what I think is a widespread temptation to picture God in his immutability and transcendence as characterized by apathy in the depth of his being. To such an approach, which is encountered frequently these days, the author implicitly takes strong exception. For him, a listening, understanding God is not enough; a silent God, however supposedly concerned, will simply not do. Things are too bad for that. The God the Christian says is loving and not an aristocrat who picks and chooses can be ignored or trusted blindly in a hope that the future will clear up the enigma of excessive evil. Neither course is taken by the author. The...