Thoughtfullness

I have been reading a book titled, Raging with Compassion: Postmodern Responses to the Problem of Evil, which I highly recommend. I have major problems with most books on pastoral care or the theodicy question. My problem is that most of them are intellectual defenses of God or pure theory with no practical appilcation. I have very little patience with theology that is not practical or applicable to a persons life. I guesse one would have to say I am a practical theologian.

Anyway, the point here is that most books that address the theodicy question do so in a highly intellectual way. In psychology this is a defense mechanism called intellectuallism. Meaning that if we keep an event in the intellectual realm, then we do not have to really examine our feelings about the event. Therefore, we really never fully integrate the event into our life and are defended against the event. In Raging with Compassion, this is Swinton's critique of most theodicies. I think he is absolutely correct. Most ventures into the theodicy are simply psychological defenses against having to actually respond to the evil in the world around us. If we intellectualize, blame the victim (say it is because of his or her or thier sin) or call God evil, then we protect ourselves. We find comfort in our reasoning and assure ourselves it could not happen to us. However, Swinton, goes on to say that the real question is not why thier is evil in the world, but how are we as Christians going to respond to the evil.

Swinton defines evil as anything that interferes with our relationship with God. Therefore, when an evil event occurs, how do we as Christians bring the presence of Christ into this event. One of the ways that this is done, is through what Swinton calls thoughtfullness. He talks about how most people do not think about their actions. He uses the example Otto Adalf Eichman, who was a prominant member of the Nazi governmnet of Germany during WWII. Eichman was responsible for organizing the roundups and transportation of Jews to the death camps. He was put on trial at Nuremberg. He had two psychological evaluations the first came down that he was a monster and enjoyed killing people and all that. The second though, was quite interesting. This woman was actually impressed by his normality and said that he was a short sighted buraecrat whose life seemed marked by an inability to see the long term results of his actions. In other words, he simply did or could not think about the consequences of what he was doing at the time. He was thoughtless.

We in the United States of America, live in a thoughtless culture. We want things now so we put them on a credit card, never thinking about what 15% interest is going to do to us in the future. We shop for cars not on what the whole price is going to be, but what our payment is going to be. Usually not even think ing about that balloon payment on the end, that will be more than the car is worth. We also have people who can step on others to get to the top, not thinking about the long term. We have drug use for the high at the moment, never considering the long term physical consequences, or the emotional consequences for other around us.

It seems to me one thing we as Christian can add to our culture is what Swinton calls thoughtfullness. The ability to think about our actions, both in the short term and the long term, and reflect on the possible consequences of both our actions and inactions.