Hypotyposis on a Good Day

I enjoyed reading James Wood’s essay on the problem of evil in the New Yorker. He captured well at the end of the essay a question I’ve had for a long time, namely, why do we have go through life on earth when we have heaven as the ultimate destination? If it’s the exercise of human free will that enables evil to take hold on earth, how will heaven not be earth redux in which freedom will lead again to a fall? And if heaven is some special place in which freedom is fully consonant with the impossibility of human evil, then why does God put us on earth in the first place? Or maybe we won’t be truly free in heaven at all.

I’ve never seen a satisfactory answer to the question that Wood poses. The essay made me think that it would be a great idea for New College Berkeley or my church First Presbyterian Church of Berkeley to host a class — or at least a talk — on the topic.

From today’s SF Chronicle, I read Lies are no longer damned lies / Americans reduced to expecting deceit, an article that comes at a good time for me, especially as I reflect on the challenges of getting at the “truth”. The article calls for a more nuanced response than what I can give immediately — but my off-the-cuff reaction is this: The fact that I’m not surprised by the great amount of deception half-truths, mistruths, failed attempts to convey the truth, delusions does not mean that I don’t long for the truth to be told or for a system in which we can trust each other and our leaders to be truth-tellers (and perhaps, more importantly), truth-bearers. I am tired by the amount of effort it takes to figure out what’s going on. It’s hard enough when well-meaning people try to communicate. Add to the mix people who are struggling for power over each other and we start to get this incredible mix. I don’t exempt myself from the class of people who add to the mess — for I am deeply sinful too. Hence my dependence on a hermeneutic of self-suspicion in addition to skepticism of others. And to throw in something else I will want to elaborate as I go along — even well-intentioned self-suspicion is insufficient!

[If I get back to revising this post soon, it would behoove me to deepen my understanding of the "hermeneutics of suspicion" -- an article on Paul Ricoeur might be a place to start for my own self-education.]