God of All Comfort (eBook)

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THE BACKSTORY OF HORRORS

Shalom and Blessedness

In human existence, horrors abound. Amanda Wortham writes about the contemporary pervasiveness of overwhelming evil, which she sums up as horror:

Moving through this summer has felt like wandering in a mirrored maze of bad news, with each new turn giving us barely enough time to get our bearings before we have to confront another senseless horror. It’s hard to know how to navigate such a brutal onslaught of tragedy; every time we attempt to move forward, our surroundings tell us that we haven’t made any real progress at all. Instead, what we see insists that grief, terror, violence, and rage are destined to become a part of our cultural fabric.1

We all face and struggle with evil in its various forms. For this reason, we need language and concepts in order to describe the gravest problems we face.

In light of the multiple terror attacks in Paris in November 2015, French President François Hollande used horror as a summative category for the many evils that people perpetrated on one another and their societies.2 His use of “horror” was echoed by many others.3 More recently, my own hometown has experienced evils summed up as “horrors,” the “Horror on Bourke Street” in 2017 providing one such example.4

The language of horrors is increasingly employed in the media around large-scale public tragedies, but what does this language mean? The term is often used quite fluidly. Is the language of horrors helpful? To which truths does this language refer? When is the language of horrors most appropriate and effective? Is it a metaphor, or are there reasons to believe that there are such things as horrors?

The current use of this language can serve Christians well because it stimulates us to clarify what horrors refer to. Such insight may help us come to grips with horrors, the questions they raise, and how to live with God and one another in light of them.

We can understand best what horrors are by contrasting them with the ideal state for human persons: the Edenic ideal. The Christian concepts of shalom, the God of shalom, and human beings as made in God’s image establish a number of standards for life that are eviscerated by horrors.5 When we examine these, the warrant for the truths about horrors emerges. This also aligns methodologically with trauma studies, which will become central to this book because trauma studies engages with the larger narrative of Scripture in order to deal with trauma and its theological dimensions.6

SHALOM: GOD’S UNIVERSE DESIGNED FOR PERSONAL FLOURISHING

The concept of shalom (shalom) is the background against which horrors become clear.7 The word “shalom” (meaning “wholeness” and “peace”) has been used by theologians to capture the ideas in Genesis 1–2 concerning the ideal environment and ways of relating between God and human persons.8 When God blessed creation in its Edenic and wholesome state, he was conferring his approval of that state and his intention to perpetuate it: “God blessed the seventh day and declared it holy, for on it he rested from all his work of creation” (Gen 2:3 CSB).9 God was satisfied with the sufficiency of creation; it is enough and itself has all it needs for life, which is a state of shalom—to satisfactorily have everything one needs.10 Not only was the garden of Eden “teeming with life,”11 but God’s blessing reflects his intention for its ongoing flourishing for all involved.12 The term “shalom” includes a perspectival sense related to the word “good”—so shalom includes the recognition that when this state of affairs is the case, then this is good.13 Consequently, we can say that a blessed life from God, described as shalom, is the great “Good” to which God’s creation is directed. Cornelius Plantinga writes:

The webbing together of God, humans and all creation in justice, fulfilment and delight is what the Hebrew prophets call shalom. We call it peace, but it means far more than mere peace of mind or a cease-fire between enemies. In the Bible, shalom means universal flourishing, wholeness, and delight—a rich state of affairs in which natural needs are satisfied and natural gifts fruitfully employed.… Shalom, in other words, is the way things ought to be.14

These are the conditions, or the ideal environment, that enable personal flourishing and breadth of life in common with each other. Shalom includes the best possible patterns of reciprocal relating between agents.15 Every motivation and behavior in this dynamic and wholesome world builds up the soundness of each individual as well as the groups in the ecosystem.16

The ways that “shalom” is used in the Old Testament flesh out the various senses of the term and its theological use as a foundational Christian concept. The first has to do with holistic personal well-being. For example, in Genesis 29:6, when Jacob inquires as to the welfare or well-being of Laban, he asks after Laban’s shalom. When Joseph’s brothers come to see him in Egypt, he asks whether they are well—do they have/experience shalom (Gen 43:27). Joseph is also sent by Jacob to inquire about the shalom of his brothers in Genesis 37:14, probably in the sense of “things going well with them.” In these cases, shalom “designates well-being, prosperity, or bodily health.” Importantly, there is a theological driving force behind the idea of shalom; it is understood to be the outcome of a wise life that is carried out according to God’s designs for it: “In the Wisdom literature the expectation exists that someone who lives in accordance with the prescriptions of wisdom will experience a long life and peace (Prov 3:2, 17). The wicked, on the contrary, will experience no peace (Isa 48:22; 57:21; 59:8).… [Shalom] in such contexts designates a state of existence in accordance with Yahweh’s created order.” For this reason, shalom is associated with peace, which is “typified as a state of calmness and tranquility.”17 The apex of the emotions associated with shalom is joy (Gen 33:18).18

The second sense in which “shalom” is used refers to interpersonal well-being. This is a communal and interpersonal concept that is concerned with righteous relationships rather than individual well-being.19 For this reason, “shalom,” Nel writes, “is also used to express the social or communal relations between friends, parties, and nations. In these contexts it gives expression to the absence of strife and war, representing, in other words, a friendly alliance.”20 For example, Hamor and Shechem use the term “shalom” when they say “these men are peaceful with us” in Hebrew (Gen 34:21). Shalom is the basis for the phrase “there will be peaceful counsel between the two of them” in Zechariah 6:13, to do with the relationship between the expected model king and an ideal priest.21

Thus we can say that covenantal relationships provide the security and orientation for shalom-like flourishing as well as peaceful, personal, and interpersonal “webbing together,” as Plantinga puts it.22 These promise-based relationships are successful when personal intentions and responsibilities are willingly pursued in faithful and life-enhancing ways.23 Serene Jones writes, “When we live faithfully, we seek to mirror God’s own creative intentions for the world. This is faithful creativity, creativity in its truest form.… By living in conformity with God’s intentions, we act in ways that please God, delight our Creator, and hence delight and enrich the whole of creation, including ourselves.”24

Being able to act in these ways presumes that persons have the nature and qualities that will perpetuate idyllic life and life-giving conditions.25 Not only that, it presumes they have the will and power to bring about shalom for others.26 This relates to the third sense in which “shalom” is used: a state of affairs that may be restored in future times.27 In the absence of shalom, it is a quality of relationships and a state of affairs that is sought after and pursued by righteous persons, especially the Prince of Peace/shalom (Isa 9:5; 53:5; contra those described in Isa 59:8).28

But what is it to be a person fit for shalom? Because of the intrinsically personal and interpersonal nature of God himself, we need to work out our philosophy and theology of both shalom and horrors with persons, both divine and human, as the primary reference point.29 In order to proceed, we need to unpack how shalom, the opposite of horrors, is tied to what it is to be made as persons in the image of an intrinsically personal and interpersonal Trinitarian God.

THE TRINITARIAN GOD OF BLESSING AND SHALOM

God is the most personal being there is because he is necessarily personal “on the inside” as well as in his interactions with all other things. Graham Cole describes the warrant for believing that God is three persons: “In the canonical presentation Father, Son and Holy Spirit are speech agents (the Father in Matt 3:17, the Son in John 17:1 and the Holy...