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Eben Scheffler wrote much on poverty and social injustice, and this article focusses on his understanding of the Gospel of Luke and the Book of Acts in order to comprehend the different dimensions of suffering and the healing ministry of the Lukan Jesus. Scheffler stressed that Jesus' life, from birth to cross, was immersed in suffering thus becoming part of the human condition of sorrow and misery, but Scheffler ultimately stressed the compassion of Jesus' ministry which continued in the early church and which must be reflected by his followers to all people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"Suffering is that arduous, infrequent opening without reservations to the anomalous that resides within us, to that inexhaustible heteronomy that constitutes us and from which we try to escape by seeking shelter in intolerance for what is different, in submission to dogma, through servitude to the similar" (Kovadloff, 2008, p. 11). This article addresses the theme of suffering in relation to the capacity for agency by examining the experiences of a parish priest who played a key role in the emergence of Christian Base Communities in the central-western region of Mexico, particularly on the southern periphery of Guadalajara, Jalisco, during the 1970s, 1980s, and early 1990s. Padre Juan's involvement led him to promote political and organizational process grounded in reclaiming "the preferential option for the poor." Christian Base Communities in Guadalajara functioned as catalysts of a diverse range of collective actions, while also serving as venues for ongoing conflict between conservative and progressive clergy responding to the proposal of a Church "incarnated in social reality" put forth by the Second Vatican Council. Padre Juan's adherence to this alternative movement has come with the consequences of persecution, exclusion, and punishment. His stances and practices have resulted in continual conflict with the Church hierarchy, placing him in a position of suffering, but hopeful, interconnectedness with the religious institution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Catholic Church's evangelizing and healing presence throughout the world also entails the unintended reinforcement of cultural forces of misogyny that contribute to the suffering of women. This presents an urgent ethical imperative for the church to examine and reform its patriarchal structures of decision-making, ministry, and worship. Ecofeminist epistemologies and Schillebeeckx's theory of the proportional norm are employed in a movement through the steps of a theological reflection process that the author learned in collaboration with women theologians from Latin America. The symbolic paradigm guiding the movement is the Lukan Gospel's bent-over woman, standing up straight and glorifying God. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Anthropology's approach to answering the question of the role of suffering in our lives is limited to empirical data and at best describes an individual's capability to endure it and make sense of it. Levinas was at odds to find meaning in suffering once it had exceeded certain proportions. Various cultures demonstrate greater and lesser capacities for integrating corporate suffering when it has crossed a significant threshold (e.g. Israeli Holocaust survivors, Canadian-Cambodian Khmer Rouge survivors, and their descendants). What is the role of ritual and productive suffering in revealing meaning in suffering? Some examples are drawn from the experiences of pilgrims on the Camino de Santiago de Compostella. Drawing from Dr. Eleonore Stump's exploration of second-person narratives and relationships, a Christian philosophical-theological response is provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The book of Job is, undoubtedly, the literary work that has provoked more comments regarding the issue of suffering in human existence. However, the expressive richness with which men is described, and his relationship with evil, has not been delved in enough. This is why this research intends to reflect on the issue of human suffering in the book of Job, in accordance with the book's own vision, based on the classic Hebrew anthropology, and beginning with (1) some linguistic considerations regarding the description of the body in the expression of emotions in the Hebrew Bible; (2) a similar study on the book of Job and in part of its rich anthropological vocabulary in the description of the experiences of pain and suffering, especially according to the poem of chapter 3; and, lastly, (3) the scopes of the anthropological conception of the book of Job and its poetic expression in the entire book, with the objective of carefully establishing a bridge between the present and the past (Job and us), between the human figure of Job and out daily experience of suffering. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on transformative suffering in terms of cultivation and exercise of virtues including edification and potentially transformative (PT) theologies. Topics discussed include claims in common to edificationism and PT theologies such as intrinsically negative character of suffering regardless of positive edifying potential, suffering being potentially edifying or transformative, and positive potential of suffering being contingent upon sufferers' response to suffering.

Gregory Nazianzen spoke of a suffering Christ ‘who became weak for us’ in the context of an oration, On Love of the Poor, which dealt at length with the extreme suffering the lepers had endured. The outcasts of the ancient world, lepers figured prominently in Jesus’ ministry as recorded in the Gospels. By juxtaposing their human suffering with divine weakness, Gregory implied that Christ had suffered with the lepers. The comparison not only gave meaning to the human experience of suffering, it also explored the extent of Christ's suffering in the divine economy. There was no affliction too grotesque for Christ to have assumed.Throughout his life, Gregory developed a notion of collective suffering which is relevant to understanding the magnitude of the suffering of Christ. It made the limitless suffering of humanity seem manageable and contained. It normalised the overwhelming sense of misery by expanding individual suffering into the suffering of the group, the suffering of the group into the suffering of neighbours and finally the suffering of neighbours into the collective suffering of the body of Christ. Christ then experienced the fullness of the human condition as the head of this body.The lepers served a purpose in this vision of collective suffering. By making the lepers a synecdoche for all human suffering, Gregory allowed Christ to assume their misery without his listeners having to imagine Christ suffering every aspect of their physical and emotional distress. This transference of collective suffering to the body of Christ worked in the following way: the individual suffering of the leper flowed into the collective suffering of the group, which connected with, and was incorporated into, the collective suffering of the Christian body. The result was a relationship of mutual imitation between Christ and humanity. It implied that human beings suffered with Christ, and that Christ suffered with human beings.By integrating literary techniques and contexts into theological analysis, this article examines the various ways in which Gregory construed the suffering of Christ. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article argues that the double negative form of the ‘disclosure formula’ in 2 Cor 1.8 (οὐ … θέλομεν ὑμᾶς ἀγνοεῖν) is not merely a stylistic variation on θέλομεν ὑμᾶς γινώσκειν but performs the additional rhetorical function of disavowing any attempt on Paul's part to hide the story of his sufferings from the church in Corinth. The transition from 1.8–11 to 1.12–14 (which many commentators struggle to explain) thus becomes a smooth and obvious one, suggesting a close interconnection between Paul's defence of his transparency and integrity in 1.12–2.13 and his apology for his sufferings in 2.14–7.4. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The New Testament's two pictures of divine intercession, that of the risen Christ interceding at the right hand of God (Rom 8:34; Heb 7:25) and that of the Holy Spirit interceding from within believers’ hearts (Rom 8:26–7), offer additional perspective on the difficult issue of how God comes in touch with human suffering. Romans 8:26–7 connects the Spirit's intercession with the experience of human suffering, and through its reference to groaning implies that the Spirit communicates something of the believer's felt experience of weakness to God. Hebrews links Christ's high priestly work, including his intercessory activity, with his experience of struggle, thereby implying that he brings the needs of weak and pressured believers to God with an empathy born of direct experience of suffering. These scriptural pictures open a fruitful path for theological reflection, suggesting that God comes to know human suffering not simply by unmediated divine knowledge, or even by the bare fact of the divine Son's incarnation, but also in a mediated fashion, through complementary actions of Christ and the Spirit best described as acts of intercession.Applying a model of thought which emphasises the intercessory activities of Christ and the Spirit to the problem of divine passibility has a number of advantages. First, it coheres well with New Testament patterns for describing the roles of Father, Son and Holy Spirit: Christ's intercession is rooted in his incarnation and distinctive redemptive mission, while the Spirit's intercession emerges from his redemptive indwelling. Second, its picture of God knowing human suffering through the mediated process of intercession suggests that God maintains his freedom and holiness even as he gets in touch with human suffering. Third, the intercession model may shed additional light on how the sufferings of the incarnate Son touch or otherwise relate to the Father. Fourth, the Bible's pictures of divine intercession suggest that God is brought in touch with two dimensions of human suffering: the objective reality of human affliction (mediated through Christ's intercession) and the subjective experiences of afflicted people (mediated through the Spirit's intercession). Finally, these scriptural pictures of intercession orient our thoughts about the question of passibility in a pastoral direction. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Forgiveness and hope are arguably key concepts in Christian theology, yet little has been written exploring the connections between these two words. For those who have experienced suffering inflicted by others, forgiveness and hope are important. This article draws together the reflections of Christians who have supported trauma survivors and the theology of Moltmann to re-examine the notion of forgiveness and hope in Christian theology. By so doing, the article proposes an alternative way of looking at the offering of forgiveness and explores why forgiveness is ultimately an act of hope. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The following is a panel discussion between four theologians about their recent theological work at the intersection of trauma and Christian theology. This conversation highlights the ways in which current (or recent) studies in trauma have impacted and reshaped the classic questions of Christian faith: Where is God in the suffering? Does God will suffering? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the possible contributions that the Adventist Theology can make to resolve the emergent impasse between the conception of a God of love and a world of evil and suffering. The author presents an alternative hermeneutics to solve the "paradox of Epicure", and to understand the reality that surrounds us. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]