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'How could a good god allow suffering?' peter sanlon
28th february 2010
Peter Sanlon
Peter holds degrees in theology from Oxford and Cambridge Universities. He is currently writing a doctoral thesis on Augustine's expository preaching and training to become a vicar. He is editor of the website www.stilldeeper.com which encourages readers to look at culture, walk as disciples and think ideas. He and his wife Susanna have just had their first child, Lewis.
Click here to hear an AUDIO file of Peter's talk
Click here to watch a VIDEO of Peter's talk
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Rachel Thorpe, 01/03/2010 |
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| | | Ranko Pinter (Guest) | 15/03/2010 14:17 | Dear Rachel,
As a believer, I was interested in your series of lectures entitled The Reason For God, though I only discovered them nearly at the end, and only managed to attend the last of the talk How Could a Good God Allow Suffering.
In the end I was disappointed with the lecture given by Peter Sanlon. Not having attended the others I am not sure it the level of that lecture was representative of the rest, however, Peter Sanlon, in my view, failed to provide any convincing answer to the question posed that would stand any rational scrutiny.
As someone who has been brought up as a Christian I have to somewhat reluctantly admit that none of the arguments that I have heard so far from Christians, including Peter Sanlon and even the Archbishop of Canterbury, have the satisfactory answer to this fundamental question How Could a Good God Allow Suffering. This is not, I hasten to say because the Scriptures are wrong, but, in my opinion, it is because of the misguided way in which the Christian church interprets them.
By contrast, spiritual teachings from the East, namely Buddhism and Hinduism answer this waxing question without any difficulty simply because their interpretation of their Scriptures (the teachings of which are not dissimilar to ours) has somehow not been corrupted over the millennia in the way that that has been done by Christian church.
If the ‘mission’ of the Christian Heritage is to promote the Christianity and its teaching to the non-believers, which I hope it is, and at the same time avoid the embarrassment of being shown inadequate - as it happened on 28th February, it needs, in my considered view, to move away from the controversial issues, to which, in line with its current interpretation of the Scriptures, it really has no satisfactory answer. Alternatively, it needs to be willing to take up a challenge and look into the ways in which this and other fundamental issues are addressed by other spiritual teaching from the East, and perhaps learn and grow.
Respectfully Yours
RP
| | | | Tim Chapman (Guest) | 14/06/2010 11:51 | Thanks to Pete and Christian Heritage for a very helpful series of lectures, the highlight of which was this one on Suffering. I felt that Petes approach to answering the question which instead of taking us to Philosophical ground took us to the Bible and a God centred understanding of the world was a hugely helpful demonstration of confidence in scripture to speak to our questions without allowing unbelieving assumptions to set the agenda too fast. Many thanks. I will direct Christians and enquirers to the talk wherever the issue arises. TC
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