When the flash floods hit Texas and wiped out the lives of so many beautiful young people, I thought of Voltaire’s account of the Lisbon earthquake of 1755 in Chapter V of Candide. The earthquake killed thousands of people.
In Candide Voltaire famously mocked the philosophical “optimism” of Alexander Pope (“whatever is, is right)” and Leibniz (this is “the best of all possible worlds”) in the face of such tragedy. Leibniz coined the term “theodicy” as the philosophical category addressing the question of God’s justice. That Chapter V of Candide has remained stuck in my head.
Before he wrote Candide, Voltaire had addressed the subject in poetic form — “On the Lisbon disaster; or an Examination of the Axiom, All is Well.” He wrote the poem in the immediate aftermath of the earthquake. The Penguin Classics deluxe edition of Candide not only includes the excellent translation of the novel by Theo Cuffe, but also Voltaire’s introduction to the poem along with Tobias Smollett’s translation of it in Appendix 2.
Rod Dreher cites Voltaire’s poem and provides a Christian response in “The theological mystery of Camp Mystic.” He draws on the work of David Bentley Hart confronting the reality of another natural disaster. C.S. Lewis provided a classic Christian response in The Problem of Pain (the link is to a summary of the book).
Dreher does not note that Rousseau responded to Voltaire’s poem in the long Letter from J.J. Rousseau to M. de Voltaire. I found the letter both interesting and worthwhile. Candide seems to have been Voltaire’s considered response to Rousseau’s letter.
When I read it last week, Rousseau’s letter reminded me of Rabbi Harold Kushner’s When Bad Things Happen to Good People (the link is to another rabbi’s summary and response). Kushner’s book drew power from his experience of the death of his son at age 14 from the disease of premature aging.
Why? Why? Why? Spend a day or two visiting the cancer ward or the neonatal intensive care unit of your local children’s hospital. You won’t find the answer, but you will find the question over and over again.
