Guest Lecture - Sharon Coggan: The Problem of Evil
When: Fri, Apr 19, 2024 at 6:00pm - 6:00pm
Where:
Secular Hub
254 Knox Ct
Denver, CO 80219
Details
Please join us as we welcome Sharon Coggan, Retired UCD Religious Studies Professor, as our guest lecturer as she speaks on the topic of Religions’ Answers to the Problem of Evil And the Philosophers’ Responses. Doors open at 5:30 with the talk to begin at 6:00, followed by Q&A. Feel free to bring your own dinner or something to share, and wine or beer if you would like to enjoy an adult beverage. Soda, Water and Concessions will be available for purchase.
This talk will face head on the great "problem of evil." As formulated in philosophical parlance: if the deity is understood as perfect, as omnibenevolent, that is, entirely, perfectly good, as he is in Christianity for example, then why is there any evil? How can a perfect entity ever create imperfection? Why would an absolutely benevolent God cause or allow the innocent to suffer? If God could stop all suffering of the innocent and yet doesn’t, is he really just, that becomes the ultimate question. We will examine this key issue, present the classical formulation of the problem, the traditional solutions offered by various religious systems, and then the classical philosophical critiques of each answer. Each religion deals with the question of suffering, and each views it differently. But philosophers, that is, critical thinkers, can easily demolish all the various “theodicies” religions put forward to insist that God is just. There are many different ways that religions of the world have imagined “God.” If they don’t posit that God is perfect, then the problem virtually disappears. We will examine these various ways of imagining God in the course of religions grappling with this most difficult issue and the solutions and implications of those potential answers.
Here is an extended reading list if people are interested:
*William Cenkner, Ed., Evil and the Response of World Religions. St. Paul: Paragon, 1997.
*Marilyn M. Adams, and Robert M. Adams, The Problem of Evil. N.Y.: Oxford, 1996.
Yeager Hudson, The Philosophy of Religion. Mt. View, CA.: Mayfield, 1991.
*William L. Rowe, and William J. Wainwright, Philosophy of Religion, Selected Readings. 3rd Ed., N.Y.: Harcourt, Brace College, 1998.
*Alvin Plantinga, God, Freedom and Evil. Grand Rapids, MI.: Eerdmans Press, 1996.
*Anthony Flew, God, Freedom and Immortality. NY.: Prometheus, 1989.
*David O'Connor, God, and Inscrutible Evil. N.Y.: Rowman & Littlefield, 1998.
*Carl G. Jung, Answer To Job, in The Portable Jung. N.Y.: Penguin Books, 1977.
Speaker
Sharon L. Coggan, PhD
Sharon L. Coggan, Ph.D. earned the B.A. from the University of Denver, the M.T.S. (Master of Theological Studies) from Harvard Divinity School, the M.A. from Stanford University, and the Ph.D. from Syracuse University. She was an Associate Professor C/T and the Director of the Religious Studies Program at University of Colorado Denver, a program she created, before retiring in August 2020. She offers a range of classes on religion and on Jungian Thought: World Religions, Concepts of the Soul, Concepts of God, Death and Afterlife, Mysticism, Eastern Thought, Myth and Symbol, Classical Mythology, Perspectives on Good and Evil, Perspectives on Dream Analysis, and the Hero’s Journey. She still offers these classes in smaller venues now that she is happily retired. She remains an active Board member on the Board of Directors of the C. G. Jung Society of Colorado, in Denver. She is the author of the book, Sacred Disobedience: A Jungian Analysis of the Saga of Pan and the Devil, from Lexington Press, which came out in 2020.
