Antiteodikea, traagisuus ja sopiva etäisyys koronakriisissä
Avainsanat:
Antiteodikea, Teodikea, Koronapandemia, Koronavirus, Kärsimys, UskonnonfilosofiaAbstrakti
Antitheodicy, the Tragic Human Condition and Critical Distance in the Corona Crisis — This article examines the ethical problems in “theodicist” ways of thinking, especially in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, by critically integrating interpretations of literary depictions of pandemics with a philosophical defence of “antitheodicism,” which rejects any attempt to justify or excuse why God (or any secular proxy) permits meaningless suffering to take place. It also employs the concepts of the tragic human condition and the ethically appropriate critical distance between human beings in conducting this analysis. While antitheodicist critiques of theodicism can be traced back to the Book of Job, they have received important articulations in modern philosophy (e.g., Kant, Levinas) and literature (e.g., Camus, Roth). The authors emphasize not only one’s ineliminable individual responsibility for other human beings in a pandemic situation but also the unavoidability of the tragic fate of instrumentalizing others’ suffering.
