I have lived in the state of Hawaii twice. First as a child, when my father, an Air Force pilot, served at Hickam Air Force Base. Second, as an adult when I pastored a church in Honolulu. Although I lived on the main island of Oahu, I visited the island of Maui on several occasions, including the lovely and historic town of Lahaina.
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Given that history, the recent fires have brought me great sadness. The town has been utterly decimated, including homes, businesses, historic sites, and even churches. The official death toll currently stands at ninety-three, but that number is likely to rise.
I once visited a worship service at a church in Lahaina. But there’s nothing left of that church now but dust and ashes. After watching a newscast about the Lahaina tragedy, I wrote in my journal, “How does anybody still believe in traditional providential theology?”
People lose faith for many reasons. But near the top of the list (probably at the very top) is the problem of suffering. People cannot understand how an all-good, all-loving, and all-powerful God allows so much suffering. Neither can I. It’s hard to sing the old hymn, “God will take care of you,” while watching the evening news.
I’ve come to the difficult conclusion that people must either jettison traditional providential theology or jettison their faith. Because it’s virtually impossible to hold both at the same time. If we still want to affirm some kind of providential theology, we must, at the very least, radically redefine it.
I don’t pretend to have simple answers to this age-old dilemma. Nobody does. But if you would like to read some of my thoughts on this topic, you can read the following resources on Doubter’s Parish:
- Hurricanes, Holocausts, and Other Horrors: Three Theological Responses to Suffering
- Providence and the Pandemic
- An Inconvenient Loss of Faith: A Theological Novel(see chapter 28, "The Week from Hell" (pp. 139-43), chapter 29, "God on the Gallows" (pp. 144-148), and chapter 30, "The Death of Providence" (pp. 149-51).