On Suffering: An Inter-disciplinary Dialogue on Narrative and the Meaning of Suffering

In this book, a diverse array of scholars agree that discussions of suffering must move beyond mere academic postulations that assert suffering as a phenomenological "given," an experience so naturally inherent that no human response can augment fundamentally its impact. Such approaches too often render apathetic responses to real human tragedies. The authors here explore both the inward experience of suffering, the myriad causes of suffering, and how, in some cases, such suffering can be articulated, understood, and even overcome. Here, the dialogue becomes a debate between those embracing a meta-narrative to frame the experience of suffering, and those promoting personal narratives amid concrete historical circumstances as the key to any effort to "make sense of" suffering.

Table of Contents:
Introduction Nate Hinerman and Matthew Lewis Sutton SECTION 1 Personal Narrative and Making Sense of Suffering The Music, Art and Ethics of Suffering Raymond De Vries Blues and Healing: 'When You're Sick Child, Oh Sometimes It Makes You Well' John Rapson Regarding Suffering: An Artist's Reflections on the Perception of Suffering in Painting Tim Lowly Metaphysical Suffering, Metaphysics as Therapy Amber D. Carpenter Suffering in Silence: Emmanuel Levinas and Jean-Luc Marion on Suffering, Understandingand Language Rashmika Pandya Ethical Challenges When Reading Aesthetic Rape Scenes Emy Koopman Research on Curative Speech Acts Observed through a Long-Term Initiative Involving Young Cancer Patients and Grieving Parents in Sao Paulo, Brazil Tatiana Piccardi Suffering that Slips through Rhetorical Gaps: Colson Whitehead's John Henry Days Bev Hogue SECTION 2 Communal Meta-Narrative and Making Sense of Suffering From Suffering to Hope and Faith: The Pragmatic Value of 'Inspirational Literature' Madhavi Gokhale and Milind Malshe Remembering to Forget: Memory and Suffering in 137 Mansfield Park Colleen Weir The Question of Suffering Confronted by Evolutionary Theology Andrzej Danczak Does God Suffer? Hans Urs von Balthasar's Theology of Holy Saturday Matthew Lewis Sutton What is Sacrifice For? The Structure of Sacrifice in Jan Patocka's Phenomenology Anna Sugiyama Making Sense of Verdun: Photography and Emotions During the First World War in France Beatriz Pichel The Mysterious Ways of Suffering: A Reading of C. S. Lewis Till We Have Faces: A Myth Retold Maria Luisa Franco de Oliveira Falcao

About the Author :
Nate Hinerman, Ph.D., is a member of the faculty in the School of Nursing and the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at the University of San Francisco. He teaches and writes about death, dying, bereavement, and community-based models of hospice and palliative care. Matthew Lewis Sutton, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies, at St. John's University in New York City. He teaches and writes about Christianity specifically on the interconnections between twentieth-century Christology, Trinitarian Theology, Ecclesiology, and Spirituality.