Pain and Suffering: As Soul Making

In His Name
'assalam o alaykum

Been reading a work by a Christian author

Whats so amazing about Grace, pp. 95-96
Philip Yancey, Zondervan

and he quotes John Hick from his work 'Philosophy of Religion' on the subject of pain and evil

Suppose contrary to the fact, that this world were a paradise from which alll possibility of pain and suffering were excluded. The consequences would be very far-reaching. For example, no one could ever injure any one else: the murders knife would turn to paper or his bullets to thin air; the bank safe, robbed of million of dollars (without this device , on however a large scale, proving inflationary); fraud, deceit, conspiracy, treason would always leave the fabric of the society undamaged. Again, no one would ever be an injured by an accident ......... To make possible this continual series of individual adjustments, nature would have to work 'special providences' instead of running on natural laws which men must learn to respect the penalty of pain and death. The laws of nature would have to be extremely flexible: some times an object would be hard and solid, sometimes soft ....

One can begin to imagine such a world. it is evident that out present ethical concepts would have no meaning in it. If, for example, the notion of harming some one is an essential element in the concept of wrong action, in our hedonistic paradise there would be no wrong actions - nor any right actions in distinction from wrong. Courage, fortitude would have no point in an environment in which there is, by definition no danger or difficulty. Generosity, kindness, the agape concept of love, prudence, unselfishness and all other ethical notions which pre-suppose life in a stable environment could not even be formed. Consequently, such a world, however well it might promote pleasure , would be very ill adapted for the development of human qualities if human personality.

It would seem, then, that an environment intended to make possible the growth in free beings if the finest characteristics of personal life, must have a good deal in common with out present world. It must operate according to the general and dependable laws; and it must involve real dangers, difficulties, problems, obstacles and possibilities of pain, failure, sorrow, frustration, which- subtracting mans own very considerable contribution-our world contains it would have to contain others instead

To realize this .... to understand that this world, with all its "heartaches and the thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to", an environment so manifestly not designed for the maximization of human pleasure and minimization of human pain, may be rather well adapted to the quite different purpose of "soul making"

regards, Abbas