How Do You Solve A Theological Problem Like Maria Summary

After reading the article, “How Do You Solve a Theological Problem Like Maria?” and thinking about the concept of the problem of evil, it is evident that hurricane survivors are trusting in what God is doing in their lives. This article is based upon the effects that this hurricane season, has had on the Caribbean. The article describes how Christians residing in the Caribbean are coping with the evil Hurricane Maria has brought in their lives, by seeing God through the storm. They address the theme of evil by having faith that there is a reason for this. Augustine is a thinker that we have discussed whose beliefs relate to the hurricane survivors in the Caribbean; however, one thinker, Tertullian believed in something quite different. By

It addresses one pastor who thanks God for sending disasters and suffering into our lives because they bring people back to believing and searching for answers, which in turn brings them back to God. Also, the article quotes another source from Psychology of Religion and Spirituality, which discusses how disasters, such as hurricanes, can cause illnesses in survivors such as depression. However, when those survivors believe in a higher power who has a meaning behind their suffering, those people recover from the event positively and encourage others. With an encouraging outlook on the events that they are encountered with by God, survivors are apt to have content feelings on the reason behind the hurricane (American Psychological Association 2017). Another article entitled, “When Jesus Doesn’t Calm the Storm” also talks about this theme of the problem of evil. The author of this article states, “All the sorrow and suffering in this world is a mystery. There’s no wrapping our heads around it; there just isn’t… all we can do is trust the One who has suffered with us and for us, the kind of God who weeps with us…” (W. David O. Taylor 2017). This author is addressing the problem of evil as a mystery and the only way the survivors can attempt to solve the mystery is by trusting in God who, in his belief, has suffered with us and even for us. All

Moral evil is evil that humans are responsible for where natural evil is by the ways of nature that are out of human control. Therefore, this problem of evil that the Caribbean Christians have experienced is natural evil. Augustine was one of the thinkers that we studied who talked about evil existing in our world. His solution to this issue was the afterlife. He believed that Heaven and Hell are responses to the evil here on earth and that we will understand Gods divine plan once we pass over. This same idea is what the survivors are essentially trusting in. Since they believe that God allows this to happen for a reason they are believing in the divine plan like Augustine did and will receive understanding in life after death. In contrast to this idea, Tertullian didn’t believe in gaining an understanding in the afterlife. Tertullian believed in Traducianism, where souls are passed from parents. With this belief, he thought that this evil has been passed down from the original sin that Adam and Eve committed in Genesis. He used Traducianism to explain how evil is a natural part of our selves and it is not a divine being who creates it. His idea is completely different from what the people in the articles believe and use as knowledge to cope with this tragedy. By looking at similar and dissimilar beliefs, we can see how the solution to the problem of evil