THE
P RTAL
May 2018
Page 10
Thoughts on Newman
The problem of evil
Dr Stephen Morgan, like Blessed John Henry
Newman, wrestles with the problem of evil
L ife has
a horrible habit of delivering thoroughly unwelcome, even unforeseen, disappointments,
often when we have, ourselves, given of our very best, with unstinting effort, even in matters where we are
thoroughly competent and properly resourced. Unless we have been uniquely fortunate, none of us will have
led lives entirely free of the bewilderment of the Psalmist,“Why standest thou afar off, O LORD? why hidest
thou thyself in times of trouble? (Ps.10:1).
It is said that the most frequent question asked by
those struggling to believe is “Why does God allow
bad things to happen to good people?” Theologians
call this problem the problem of evil or of the
operations of the Divine Permissive Will and the
answers they have come up with are called theories of
Theodicy (a term derived from Greek and meaning
the justification or trial of God). Some of the early
Christian Fathers – for example, Irenaeus, Origen and
Augustine – tried, more or less successfully, to provide
coherent intellectual answers to the problem based on
reflection upon human experience and the witness
of Sacred Scripture. In the end, however, they can
all seem inadequate when faced with what has been
called, “the sheer amount and intensity of both moral
and natural evil.” (John Roth, Encountering Evil, p.61)
Newman’s life might credibly be presented as a series
of ostensible failures. The devastation he felt on failing
to achieve honours in the Schools when he was at
Oxford, the episcopal charges levelled at his Tracts, the
collapse of his various attempts at a coherent synthesis
of Anglican Theology that could be reconciled with
historic Catholicism and the collapse of the enterprise
at Littlemore comprise some of the low points of the
first half of his life. After his conversion – at pretty
much the halfway point of his nearly ninety years – he
fared no better. Suspicion in Rome, where he might
not unreasonably have expected to be recognised
as a celebrated convert, led to deeply poignant
reflections that suggest deep psychological distress.
This was followed, in short order, with a conviction
for Criminal Libel in the Achilli Trial and the disaster
that was to be the result of his efforts to establish a
Catholic University in Dublin. It was almost as if he
ha d, in Peter Stravinskus’s lapidary expression, ‘the
“Midas Touch” in reverse’. (‘Newman the Failure’, in
Newman Studies Journal, 1.2(2004), p.16). Indeed, it
was not really until, in old age, Pope Leo XIII raised
him to Cardinalatial dignity, that Newman could be
permitted to feel that it hadn’t all been ashes.
How then did he cope; how then did he find an
answer to the Psalmist’s question? The answer is at
once theological and personal. Theologically it was
grounded in his profound appreciation of the mystery
of Christ, as God become Man to suffer and die not
only for us but with us for our salvation: a reality that
he remained faithful to since first he encountered it
in the writings of his beloved Athanasius. It was a
theology of God’s solidarity with man, for man. But,
as we have seen time and again, through the virtuous
habit of religion, Newman so interiorised these
intellectual convictions that they became a part of
his person. Resilience in the face of failure was to be
found in the daily recognition that in our suffering,
we are so united to the Paschal Mystery of Christ’s
redemptive suffering. For Newman, what became his
daily immersion in the Mystery of the Mass led to an
unshakable conviction, at the very ground of his being
and in the face of his trials, that through the Paschal
Mystery, made present on the Altar, we too can echo
the Good Friday cry, “My God, My God: why hast
Thou forsaken me?”, sure in the knowledge that the
response of the Father will be the new life of Easter
morning. It was this, and this alone, that permitted
him in the face of yet another of his seeming failures,
to assert ‘Ten thousand difficulties do not make one
doubt”. (Apologia, p.239). For us, I suspect the answer
is to be found in exactly the same place.
Social Justice in the New Testament ... continued from page 9
princes, the privileged. We go along with false visions
which portray the rich and powerful as people to be
admired and emulated; it is so much easier, and more
comfortable, than proclaiming God’s judgment on
them. As we seek to be fed by the Scriptures, above all
by the teaching and the ministry of our Blessed Lord
in the New Testament, let us be open to what God is
saying to us.