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Does Suffering Lack Meaning? A Contemporary Christian Response

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2024

Raymond‐Marie Bryce OP
Raymond‐Marie Bryce OP*
Affiliation:
St. Dominic Priory, 3601 Lindell Blvd, St. Louis, Missouri, United States, 63108
*
sebryce@hotmail.com
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Abstract

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.

Keywords

sufferingtheodicynarrativesecond‐personalanthropologytheologysalvifici doloris
Type
Original Article
Information
New Blackfriars , Volume 98 , Issue 1076 , July 2017 , pp. 436 - 456
Copyright
Copyright © 2016 Provincial Council of the English Province of the Order of Preachers

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