God and Suffering
Christian Reflections on the Haitian Earthquake

On the afternoon of January 12, a magnitude 7 earthquake centered just outside of Port-au-Prince, Haiti reduced hundreds of thousands of buildings to rubble resulting in more than 100,000 people dead and tens of thousands injured and trapped alive. In the days that followed, news reports told of Haitian Christians praising God amidst the death and destruction.

This jarring juxtaposition raises questions about the relationship between God and suffering. If God is good and loving, all-knowing, and all-powerful, how can something like this happen? Where is God in the midst of the ruin, pain, and loss? Does turning to God make any sense, or is the Haitian praise merely a "sigh of the oppressed" and an "opiate of the people," as Marx would have it? The Haitian people are no strangers to suffering. What might they have to teach us about this vexing topic? What resources does Christianity offer in thinking about horrible evils?

We have assembled a panel to grapple with these and related questions and provide responses that are rooted in their faith and in their academic work.

Check back soon for audio of Tuesday night's discussion. For more resources on the topic of God and suffering, click here.


Peter van Inwagen

John Cardinal O'Hara Professor of Philosophy at the University of Notre Dame

Dr. van Inwagen is one of the leading contemporary philosophers in the areas of metaphysics and philosophy of religion. He is author or editor of several books, including the edited collection Christian Faith and the Problem of Evil. His most recent book, The Problem of Evil, is a collection of his Gifford Lectures on the topic. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Margarita Mooney

Assistant Professor of Sociology and Faculty Fellow of the Carolina Population Center

Dr. Mooney received her Ph.D. in Sociology from Princeton University where she did research on Haitian immigrant cultures. This work, based on more than a year of field work in Haitian communities, resulted in her recent book, Faith Makes Us Live, which explores, in part, Haitian Christian responses to suffering. Prior to graduate school, Dr. Mooney worked at the Arias Foundation for Peace and Human Progress, where she was a speechwriter for two-time Costa Rican President and Nobel Peace laureate Oscar Arias Sánchez.

Marilyn Adams

Distinguished Research Professor of Philosophy

Dr. Adams has written extensively on the topic of God and suffering, including two books, Horrendous Evils and the Goodness of God and Christ and Horrors, material for which she developed as part of the prestigious Gifford Lectureship at the University of St. Andrews. She is also co-editor of the Oxford Readings in Philosophy volume on The Problem of Evil. Prior to joining the UNC philosophy department, Dr. Adams was Regius Professor of Divinity at Oxford University. She has previously held faculty positions in the divinity school and the department of religious studies at Yale University and was professor and chair of the philosophy department at UCLA.

Jim Thomas

Associate Professor of Epidemiology and Director of the Program in Public Health Ethics

Dr. Thomas has worked both as a public health practitioner and an academic epidemiologist. Much of his current work is in the area of public health ethics, including ethical issues related to disaster response. He was one of the principal authors of the Public Health Code of Ethics adopted by the American Public Health Association. Dr. Thomas worked for three years in public health practice in the Congo and Kenya, and his work on AIDS in Africa led to his founding the nonprofit organization Africa Rising, which seeks to strengthen grassroots efforts working to bring about positive change in Africa.


Location and Parking

Chapman Hall is located southwest of Memorial Hall behind Phillips Hall. Various campus maps with parking locations can be found here. The Cobb parking deck located off of Cobb Dr. off of Raleigh St. is free after 5 p.m. The city lot between Franklin and Rosemary on Church St. is free after 8 p.m. and $1 per hour prior to that. You can find more city lots here.

Get the Word Out

Print a flyer. Join the Facebook event .

Dr. Mooney will have copies of her book available tonight. All proceeds will go to Haiti.