The Problem of Evil and the Mad Pastor: A Sabbatical in Two Acts

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College of Charleston

Sheridan Hough, Professor of Philosophy

Prof. Sheridan Hough gives a lecture about her sabbatical research. The ‘problem of evil’ as we commonly think of it—the question ‘how can God, an omniscient, omnipotent, and perfectly good being, permit evil?’ is potent and personal for theists and non-theists alike. Right now, the person reading these words can instantly conjure a gallery of human horrors, either privately experienced or widely known, as a touchstone for the lure of explanation. Why? is the refrain. Why must the world be the site of so much meaningless suffering and acts of malicious wickedness? We want an explanation, even though the atheist denies that there is an agent who can be held to account.

Søren Kierkegaard’s account of the best life for human beings is rooted in an existential understanding of Christianity, but his vast body of work is remarkably silent on the problem of evil. Why is that? As I explored his work for an answer, I turned to another thinker who has a curious view of the origin of evil, the Danish pastor Adolph Peter Adler, who in 1843 published a volume of sermons prefaced with an astonishing claim: this collection was given to him by a revelation from Christ. But what gives a revelation authority? Kierkegaard found Adler’s story both compelling and deeply troubling. Can the mad pastor shed some light on the problem of evil, and why did Kierkegaard refuse to publish his analysis of Adler during his lifetime?