The inner tension of pain and the phenomenology of evil

Abstract

ABSTRACTWhile there is no shortage of philosophical and theological occupations with the problem of evil and theodicy, the phenomenological basis from which the problem arises often gets lost in abstract accounts. In delimiting the case to physical pain, this article attempts to provide a perspective on the problem of evil following the lead from one of the problem’s sources. Through a phenomenological analysis of pain, the article highlights the inner tension that belongs to the experience of pain. This contradiction can be traced on various levels: pain as sensational impression (both given to consciousness and resisting integration), as bodily occurrence (both making the lived body emphatically mine and foreign), and as posing a question of meaning (both inviting a ‘Why?’ and contesting meaningfulness). This phenomenology of pain can provide a perspective on the origin and nature of the problem of evil: both why intellectual responses must arise and why it cannot reach an adequate solution.