Wandering in Darkness is an intricate
philosophical defense for the problem of suffering as it is presented by
medieval philosopher Thomas Aquinas.The work addresses the philosophical / theological
problem of evil, which might be expressed as follows: if one posits an all-good, all-powerful God
as creator, yet suffering exists in the world, then (a) God must be evil, since
he created it; (b) God is less than all-powerful, since suffering came to be in
his creation, and he could not stop it; (c) God is evil and weak, since
suffering came to be in his creation, and he did not want to stop it; or (d)
suffering is an illusion. No alternative
is, of course, very satisfying. In her book, Eleanore Stump augments Thomas
Aquinas’s theodicy by reflecting upon what she calls “the desires of the
heart,” a dimension of human experience that Aquinas leaves largely untreated
in his consideration. Stump explores
this dimension by breathtaking exegeses of Biblical narratives as narratives: the stories of Job,
Samson, Abraham, and Mary of Bethany.
“Understood in the contexts of [these] narratives,” Stump argues,
“Aquinas’s theodicy explains in a consistent and cogent way why God would allow
suffering" (22).
