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The Problem of Suffering and the Sociological Task of Theodicy

Morgan, David, Wilkinson, Iain M. (2001) The Problem of Suffering and the Sociological Task of Theodicy. European Journal of Social Theory, 4 (2). pp. 199-214. ISSN 1368-4310. (doi:10.1177/13684310122225073) (The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided) (KAR id:37393)

The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided.
Official URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/13684310122225073

Abstract

Once the preserve of philosophy and theology, what Weber called `the problem of theodicy' - the problem of reconciling normative ideals with the reality in which we live - recurs in the social sciences in the secular form of `sociodicy'. Within a functionalist framework, sociodicies have offered legitimizing rationalizations of social adversities, inequalities and injustice, but seldom address the existential meaning and ethical implications of human affliction and suffering in social life. We suggest that an apparent indifference to these questions in social theory reflects a deeper tension between modernity's millennial expectations of moral progress and the escalating history of violence, exploitation and suffering in the modern world. The task of sociodicy, we argue, should be reconstructed as a critique of the decivilizing implications of this tension, not just to document the consequences of suffering on people's lives, but in order to reassess the experience of modernity at the end of one of the most disturbed and violent centuries the world has known.

Item Type: Article
DOI/Identification number: 10.1177/13684310122225073
Uncontrolled keywords: modernity, progress, sociology, suffereing, theodicy
Subjects: H Social Sciences
Divisions: Divisions > Division for the Study of Law, Society and Social Justice > School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research
Depositing User: Mita Mondal
Date Deposited: 09 Dec 2013 11:51 UTC
Last Modified: 16 Nov 2021 10:14 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/37393 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

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