A good Evil Week

At the start of September, the Revd Dr Michael Lloyd led our annual Wycliffe Intensive – a special week of exploration for anybody who wants to delve deeper into theology.

This year, Michael took a group through his favourite theological topic: the Problem of Evil. 

Here’s his report on the week:

“The punters we had at Evil Week were very disappointing, from the point of view of my evil research - they were all unhelpfully lovely! Seriously, I loved exploring one of the biggest issues of life through some of the greatest thinkers of history in the company of such an interesting, intelligent and engaged group of people.

“At Morning and Evening Prayer, I expounded edited highlights of the book of Job.
In between, we looked at every family of response to the problem of evil within Christian theology.

“We had a great tour of Oxford, culminating in a visit to the castle, where Geoffrey of Monmouth made up many of the Arthurian legends, and we heard lots of stories about when it was a prison, which seemed appropriate to Evil Week.

“We paid a visit to the Kilns, home to CS Lewis, and I talked about Lewis’ view of the problem of evil in Headington Quarry Church, where he worshipped.

“And a particular highlight for me was my conversation with Dr Bethany Sollereder, whom I had invited to come and tell the group why I am wrong – which made for a very fun discussion. She was one of my fellow contributors to God, Struggle and Suffering in the Evolution of Life.

“My prayer for the week was that it would help us to think more deeply about the mystery of evil, give us more confidence in the goodness of God, and equip us to be better supporters of those who are suffering – which I hope it did. And it was lovely getting to know such disappointingly unevil people better!”