HUMAN SUFFERING AND EXISTENCE: SOREN KIERKEGAARD IN QUEST.

Abstract

Problem of evil and suffering in the realm of existence greatly challenges us in our own existence as well as our belief in the good, all-powerful and all-loving God. The problem of suffering and the reality of evil reflects daily in the pages of human experience and existence. There are sorts of sorrows and sufferings, all kinds of inhumanities to man and his insecure existence in the world. Evil and suffering is always a dark, ugly heartbreaking and crushing reality. Therefore, this paper will help us understand the human suffering in relation to existence. The paper embraced philosophical methods of historical, analytical and theological. Historical since I didn’t start from scratch, problem of suffering is historical. Our topic being a philosophical problem, the question ‘why’ this affecting man. Can we address it rationally? Analytical since we have analyzed ideas developed about the problem of our subject as we came across them in our study. We saw the arguments of different philosophers more so Soren Kierkegaard his ideas and many philosophies more so existentialism school of thought; hence we embraced the method of analytical. The topic being a theological problem since it touches the person of God and his ways of acting upon His creatures who experience the existence, they are the ones to have faith in him and they are the subjects of evil and suffering; hence again the paper had to take the study of the nature of God and religious belief dimensions. Thus, our topic tackled different questions in this study, at last we come to agree that suffering can’t not be an idea to talk about without existence of human, that is to say actually that is to say, the essential part of existence is suffering.