Five Views On Suffering

Tim Keller’s, Walking with God Through Pain and Suffering, offers a rich exploration of how to understand and deal with pain and suffering. Characteristic of all Keller’s writing and sermons, he opens by helping us stand back from our own cultural assumptions and gain a broader and more objective view of suffering as understood by other cultures. He writes:

“Nothing is more important than to learn how to maintain a life of purpose in the midst of painful adversity…One of the main ways a culture serves its members is by helping them face terrible evil and adversity…Western culture is one of the weakest and worst in history at doing so…When suffering is perceived as simply senseless, a complete waste, and inescapable — victims can develop a deep, undying anger and poisonous hate that was called ressentiment by Friedrich Nietzsche, Max Weber and others…Society must provide a discourse through which its people can make sense of suffering. That discourse includes some understanding of the causes of pain as well as the proper responses to it” (14).

At least one very important question arises out of this. Where did you learn how to face suffering? This is one of those questions we don’t really think to ask ourselves. We sort of assume that how we deal with suffering is just how it is. But all of us have learned a particular way to explain and then deal with suffering. Some questions to get us thinking might include: How did your mother and father deal with hard times? When did you first experience suffering? What did you/do you think caused it? Are there certain movies you’re drawn to because they give a more meaningful view of suffering?

Part of the work of counseling is to help clients understand their own relationship to their present suffering. This is an obvious point, but everyone who seeks out a counselor or therapist does so because they are experiencing some degree of suffering — even when they don’t even know what to call it. I have found that people experience relief not necessarily when their circumstances change (for they often can’t), but when they develop a more meaningful way to view their circumstances. Keller gives us five views by which to see our circumstances and the suffering that accompanied them.

1.) Moralistic view – Pain and suffering caused from failure of people to live rightly. Karma is perhaps the purest form of this view. Once you “pay it off” or atone for it in some way you are then freed from suffering. Calling is to live different; purpose is spiritual growth.

2.) Self-transcendent view – Suffering comes from too much desire and attachment; therefore, need to detach and moderate desire. Some achieve this self-transcendence by being so much a part of communal life that individuality dissolves. Calling is to think differently; purpose is to gain mastery over oneself.

3.) Fatalistic view – People of wisdom and character reconcile themselves to the set and immutable destiny of all. The “highest virtue is to stand one’s ground honorably in the face of hopeless odds.” Calling is to embrace one’s destiny nobly; purpose is to achieve honor.

4.) Dualistic view – There is a battle between the forces of darkness and light. Injustice, evil, pain are present in the world because of evil, satanic powers. Sufferers seen as casualties in this war. Sufferers see themselves as victims in the battle with evil and are given hope because, they are told, good will eventually triumph.” Calling is to put one’s hope in the future; purpose is to promote the forces of good.

Finally, he gives the Secular view, which he says is a “complete departure from every other view of suffering throughout history.” This is important to note since it is the dominant view in Western culture today. One which, even if you consciously have adopted one of the preceding views, you’re likely to be influenced by — it is the air we breathe, the water we swim in.

5.) Secular view – Suffering is simply an accident. “The only thing to do with sufferings to avoid it at all costs, or, if it is unavoidable, manage and minimize the emotions of pain and discomfort as much as possible” (23). But when suffering is seen as nothing more than an “evil hiccup” the only thing to do about it is to avoid it as much as possible and instead seek pleasure. In all other worldviews, suffering can be an important chapter in our life story and crucial stage in achieving what we most want in life. But in the strictly secular view, suffering cannot be a good chapter in your life story — only an interruption of it. It can’t take you home; it can only keep you from the things you most want in life” (23).