Divinity School Blog #5: 2-25-2025

Divinity School provides students with the opportunity to reflect on the complexities of life. One component of theological education is to understand how we as humans can hold paradox in our hearts: 

• Grief and hope
• Joy and anger
• Suffering and hope

On this latter topic, have you ever lost a loved one and had moments of joy? God teaches us that it is natural and normal to experience that paradox. In divinity school, one writes at times about how God meets us, and helps us, in those conflicting moments. 

Below is an excerpt from one of my Pastoral Care papers. I am learning not only about the relationship between paradoxes like suffering and hope, but I am also learning about how to walk with people on their journey through a “ministry of presence.” Companionship is a more common word, and a practice you may already do today. Spiritual or pastoral care focuses on how to accompany people during difficult times and even traumatic events. After you read the perspective on suffering and hope below, ask yourself, “Can you recall a time when God graced you with hope even while you struggled?” 

Pastoral Care Excerpt

     “Suffering is a challenging state that can present itself in various forms. It could be a mental state of distress, or physical state of pain. Suffering can also be a spiritual state of disconnectedness. In any of these forms, people seek to resolve this unpleasant state into a state of greater comfort, either temporarily or permanently. In The Practice of Pastoral Care, Carrie Doehring provides us with a lens of lived theologies and defines suffering as one end of a continuum in a delicate balance of “life-giving or life-limiting” emotions (p. 5). Others, like Gerald McKinney, describe suffering in biomedical terms, e.g. “a burden of finitude.” In pre-enlightenment times, suffering was once seen as part of a divine plan, but then it became an impediment to health, to be eradicated wherever possible (p.309). In all these definitions, suffering comes from the Latin etymological root of “suffere” which means “to bear” or similarly, “to carry”. It is this broader definition that can be linked to the image of Jesus, who carried His cross, bearing burdens of (or suffering for) His people.  

     And yet, there is hope. Standing as a beacon of faith, hope ties the physical, mental and spiritual states of belief together, resulting in a better outcome.  The concept of hope can be used secularly, but hope becomes a spiritual term when amplified through the lens of the divine. By example, in Gordon Smith’s chapter “Joy and the Ordering of the Affections” he describes the interrelationship of faith and hope which “provide confidence in the presence, goodness and purposes of God” (p.8) and that hope is expressed as faith over time (p.9).  This multiplier effect makes hope even more meaningful to Christians who celebrate a resurrection, or a hope of new life in time, after death. In this case, hope requires faith in something that believers most likely have never seen nor experienced, but in which they still believe.”

Doehring, Carrie. The Practice of Pastoral Care: a Post-modern Approach. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2015. 

McKenny, Gerald P. “Bioethics, the Body, and the Legacy of Bacon.” In On Moral Medicine: Theological Perspectives in Medical Ethics, edited by Lammers, Stephen E and Verhey, Allen, Edition 2, 308-323. Grand Rapids, MI and Cambridge, U.K.: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, May 11, 1998.  

Smith, Gordon T. “Joy and the Ordering of the Affections: An Invitation to Emotional Holiness,” In Called to Be Saints: An Invitation to Christian Maturity. InterVarsity Press, 2013.