Generally, pain or suffering in a broader aspect may involve experiencing a feeling of repugnance and unpleasantness related to the perception of threat or harm in a person. There have been varied religious perceptions on human suffering with regard to causes, uses, and reasons for its occurrence as well as ways of alleviating or improving it. Besides, the concept of religion has for long been used in various religions to expiate, grow spiritually, punish or frighten, and to inspire assistance and compassion. In line with this, various religious theories have been established to help explore the concept of human suffering. Some of these theories include Stoicism, Confucianism, Christianity, and Theravada Buddhism. This paper explores the aspects of Christianity theory of human suffering, causes of human suffering under this theory, and various ways of ameliorating the suffering.
Though there exist some similarities on religious views on human suffering, there are some distinctive varied perceptions on human suffering across different religions. Human suffering is associated with showing compassion, promoting moral conduct, and enhancement of relief or consolation among others. Based on the Christianity theory, human suffering enables spiritual development via self-imposed experimental or life hardships. Additionally, the theory is also based on the beliefs that human suffering has key significant roles in Christianity and the lives of the people in society. In many occasions, it has been considered as an important experience especially when try to attain a greater meaning of life. For instance, Christianity likens human suffering to the suffering experienced by Jesus for purposes of improving and saving the lives of all the people hence it can be viewed as a positive experience. Having an open and broader perception of human suffering is important in Christianity to help Christians get the divine understanding and face the realism of mortal experience associated with human suffering.
Moreover, the Christianity treats human kind or man as a unique creature and one made in the likeness of God, the Supreme Being. Besides, the human kind had a human dominion over other creatures made by God. As such human suffering ought not to have been there in the first case but then became into existence due to several reasons. Roman Catholics among other Christian denominations through their teachings believed that human suffering was a consequence of evil and sin. This is based on the Biblical accounts of the fall of man and consequently the introduction of sins by Adam and Eve which was then passed to all the descendants of their lineage. The consequence of the sin included labor pains and sweating to bring food on the table as well as death. However, according to Classical Protestant divinity believed the fall of man actually involved loss of essential things to mankind and consequently inflicting suffering to humans and implicating the approach to salvation. Besides, the Non-Roman Catholics and other denominations believed immorality and irresponsible acts cause human suffering due to the humans self-transcendence. Interestingly, it has been viewed that human self-transcendence which encompasses freedom or self-determination and an essential aspect of selfhood can be a source of destructiveness and consequently human suffering despite other than enhancing mankind creativity.
There are varied perceptions of the effect of evil and suffering with many believing that the two are the source of humans diverse religious impulses. Some have argued that life makes no sense since it is the nature that pulls the shots, randomly, definitely with no reference to necessity, purpose, or morality. Despite the fact that Christianity is a logical and consistent faith globally, there are varied scholarly views with regard to some mystery elements of the connection between human suffering and evil. There is need to generally avoid the illogical options of repudiating the existence of evil and its subsequent connection with human suffering. According to the Biblical accounts, both nature and humanity tends to suffer the sins of humanity as a consequence of going against God as well as the unkind deeds against one another.
Christians believe the sins of Adam and Eve bind to all and that they need to seek salvation and maintain purity after Jesus had taken away all their sins. It is believed under this theory that most of the suffering are due to sin whether as a result of the inequalities of other people or individual transgressions. The initial sin of others had consequently continued to cause severe burden from the fall of man. Besides, the fact that Christians won on the cross following the death of Jesus who carried away our sins, much stills needs to be done to reduce and ameliorate suffering. Thus Christians believe in repentance and salvation to try and keep holy or minimize the effect of further sinning against God. One should follow the Ten Commandments fully and live by the word of God while doing well to themselves and to others in order to avoid sin since it is the ultimate trigger of suffering
In conclusion, human suffering has attracted varied perceptions across religions and Christianity is no exclusion. Several theories including Stoicism, Confucianism, Christianity, and Theravada Buddhism have been put for to explain human suffering. There exist several ways in which the human suffering can be ameliorated. These include salvation which all Christians need to abide to and ensure they do not succumb to suffering. Besides, responsible living, practicing morality, and avoiding being egocentric may help in reducing human suffering associated with sinning and ungodly behaviors. Thus, human suffering needs not only to be thought as a negative experience but also positive experience hence having a diverse perception on human suffering is essential.
Bibliography
Gray, Kurt, and Daniel M. Wegner. "Blaming God for our pain: Human suffering and the divine mind." Personality and Social Psychology Review 14, no. 1 (2010): 7-16.
Koslowski, Peter. "The origin and overcoming of evil and suffering in the world religions." In The Origin and the Overcoming of Evil and Suffering in the World Religions, pp. 1-7. Springer Netherlands, 2001.
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