It the same conflictions in our lives. Summary

             It is reasonable tosuggest that how we respond to evil and suffering provides a powerfulopportunity for a person to express their unique identity and therefor shapetheir outlook of prior and future experiences. Through these life-changingevents of trial and tribulation, it provides an opportunity for us to transformthese events into transformative and positive events, “To turn fate intodestiny” as it will.

Viktor Frankle argues, ” When we are no longer able tochange a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.” Frankle believedtribulation and suffering is a cause for transformation in ones self-identityand approach to life. Similarly we can find assertiveness in this claim throughthe life of Jesus Christ. Jesus’ life and death functions as a template for ourown approach to how we confront evil and suffering in our lives. In this essayI will argue that through the study of those who have transformed evil andsuffering in their lives into positive events, may we learn how to approach thesame conflictions in our lives. Summary of Victor Frankle’s Book            “Man’s Search forMeaning” is a 1946 book by Victor Frankle (March 26, 1905 – September 2, 1997), a Jewishconcentration camp survivor and Psychologist, previously imprisoned inAuschwitz during World War Two. It chronicles his experiences and identifieshis psychotherapeutic method to dealing with his harrowing experiences.

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In thisbook he identifies that how we respond to evil and suffering provides apowerful opportunity for a person to express their unique identity.Importantly, it also offers an opportunity to create from suffering a transformativeand positive event. Between 1942 and 1945 Frankl, was imprisoned in fourdifferent death camps, including Auschwitz, during his capture, his pregnantwife, brother and parents were put to death. Supported by his own expertise andalso the experiences of others he later treated in his care, Frankl argues thatwe are not able to avoid suffering however we can select a way to address it, acknowledge,and move forward with revived purpose.

Frankl’s theory, known as Logotherapy,from the Greek word logos (“meaning”), holds that our primary drive in lifeisn’t for pleasure, however the invention and pursuit of a personallymeaningful life.             In truth many of ustoday would find it impossible to imagine the harrowing experiences that VictorFrankle lived through, let alone to create a transformative and positive eventfrom the true suffering and evil that he and many others experienced at thehands of Nazi Germany. Frankl also theories that the one freedom allowed to us,regardless of our own personal circumstances, including his imprisonment in aNazi concentration camp, is the freedom to pick our way of thinking inaccepting our suffering. (“Viktor Frankl on The Meaning ofSuffering”, 2018)   Suffering as aTransformative and Positive Event             Victor Franklepersonified his own theology that all base freedoms can be taken away, however tochoose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances is the key totransforming evil and suffering into a positive event.

For Frankl, meaning camefrom three possible sources; love, purposeful work and courage in the face ofdifficulty. Frankle believed that the primary purpose of life was to findpersonal meaning. To find meaning, you must experience suffering; therefore youcannot experience one without the other. Stripped to its psychological essence,redemption is the deliverance from suffering to an enhanced status or state. Inlife experiences, redemptive sequences begin with our experiences of a negativeemotional state such as fear, guilt, shame and despair. However many of thesenegative experiences are “salvaged” by the subsequent coming of “light” andfollowing positive life events. These positive changes relate to thedevelopment of important qualities of character, such as purpose, love,diligence, generosity, and humility and are similarly recognized by VictorFrankl through how he found meaning in his life after suffering through thehorrors of The Holocaust. Sufferingis recognized by many as contributing to personal growth of a persons identity,thusly shaping the evil into a transformative event, so much so that it hasscientifically been recognized as Post-Traumatic Growth or “PTG”.

Echoing St.Paul on his beliefs, It is accurate to recognise that “”suffering producesendurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope”(Romans 5: 3-4). The Life and Death ofJesus in Suffering             Jesus Christ, bothfully divine and fully human, was also known as the Suffering Servant. Theprophet Isaiah said the future Savior would be “a man of sorrows, and familiarwith suffering” (Isaiah 53:3) Though fully God, Jesus also took on the samehumanity as we have, in order to accomplish his saving grace (Hebrews 2:17)Although without sin, Jesus Christ through his overwhelming humanity, alsoexperienced suffering and evil like all others. Jesus endured torture and horrific tormentwhen he was put to death on The Cross to save humanity from our sins. Those whohad previously revered and learnt from the teachings of Jesus Christ and hisDisciples jeered and spat on Jesus shouting; “Save yourself! Come down from thecross, if you are the Son of God!” (Matthew 27:39-40). However Jesus knew hislife, although filled with suffering, had purpose or meaning beyond what evilhe was confronted with and what horrors were bestowed on him.

             Jesus’ purpose was theredemption of others through his suffering and death on the cross. Subsequentlyhe was resurrected and then ascended into Heaven. Similarly Jesus life hadmeaning beyond his death on the cross, which could only have been curatedthrough his suffering of betrayal and physical pain. Although Jesus Christ’ssuffering did not transform his personality and character in a literal sense ascompared to that of Victor Frankl, instead it transformed humanity itself into”light” and allowed us to seek the Holy Spirit.   The Application of Eviland Suffering Today             Jesus in plain termsdied on the cross for our sins. He suffered “according to the will of God” (1Peter 4:19) As such we must view his form of suffering as different to ours.

However it is only through our continued relationship with Jesus Christ may weunderstand what God brings to us through suffering. God seeks to make us intobetter versions of ourselves, into a likeness of him. We never realise what Godis putting us though until we reach that level of enlightenment post evil andsuffering, to transform our experience into a positive life event, permittingus to grow in God’s light. However in spite of this, evil and suffering cansometimes make people question their religious beliefs. It is conventional andquite natural to believe that trial and tribulation through evil and sufferingis reason enough to doubt the existence of God in today’s society.             Some people say thatGod provided us with freedom and freewill to make decisions for ourselves, andthat suffering is in turn caused by the subsequent decisions that humanity haspreviously made.

God gave us the power to choose in our everyday lives. “Free”will cannot be constituted as free if we have no choice but to choose good, assuch God does not prevent humanity from choosing evil instead. Suffering is theallowance that we pay in order to choose and to be truly free in all ouractions. 

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