T&P Young Theologians Conference: Responses to Evil and Suffering

On Tuesday 13 of November, Fourth and Fifth Form T& P students visited St Paul’s church for a conference on Christianity and suffering.

The conference started with a talk by Dr Mark Scanlan. It centred around the problem of evil: “how can God be both omnibenevolent and omnipotent?” This stirred up some interesting debate, and I found this talk particularly interesting and engaging. The next talk was by Reverend Jo Wells. She discussed the importance of scripture and how suffering can be understood through Jesus and the Bible. She was very funny and passionate; this was also a great talk.

Lastly, Chris and Denise Arthey gave a powerful account on how a tragic accident affected their long held faith and how they struggled with religion after experiencing suffering first hand. Many of us thought that this was a really poignant and heart wrenching anecdote.

This trip was a really interesting discussion on the problem of suffering and religion; it will also prove useful for my GCSEs. I found the first talk particularly insightful on arguments I had never thought of (the doughnuts we were welcomed with were also an excellent bonus – I had two, naturally!).

Lavinia B

Fifth Form