Localizing the Problem of Evil: William Cowper and the Poetics of Perspectivalism

• Localizing the Problem of Evil: William Cowper and the Poetics of Perspectivalism - Samuel Joeckel

One challenge to any approach to the problem of evil involves phenomenological distance-the distance between encountering evil at a safe cognitive and emotional remove and confronting evil when it invades the individualized space of personal experience. Philosophical approaches often maximize that distance by combating the problem of evil from an abstract, de-particularized perspective; concrete instances of evil are held at bay while the theodicy-maker squares off against the universal problem of evil. Narrative approaches, on the other hand, often minimize that distance by giving representation to concrete, particularized experiences of suffering; evil rushes in upon the reader as the narrative unfolds. This essay examines how the narrative approach adopted by the poet William Cowper provides the discursive framework for a more authentic theodicy by bridging that phenomenological distance and thereby localizing the problem of evil.

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