Sophoclean Theodicy: Fate and the Role of the Gods

I haven't really focused much on religions other than Christianity, with the exception of the popularity of my reading review I did on the Yoruba religion, which I'm guessing is due to the fact that if you google image search "naked Yoruba religion" one of the pictures I used is the first option. But whatevs, I'm happy for the traffic. Anyway, I thought it would be a good idea to talk about the religion of the ancient Greeks! I recently wrote a paper on how Sophocles uses fate in his plays to inspire his audience of citizens in a religious way. While it is common knowledge that the Greeks are known for their tragedies, Sophocles uses these tragedies to explain theodicy. Theodicy, coming from the Greek words "god" and "justice", is a theological attempt to explain evil in the world, while still maintaining the notion that a god(s) is good. While Greek thought obviously varied on theology, I will show how Sophocles used two of his plays to address theodicy and inspire religiously. I will be looking at Oedipus the King (also known as Oedipus Rex) and Antigone. I will not be summarizing the plots for either of these two plays, as the plot of Greek plays are rather complex and rely on known myths, so click on their titles as previously mentioned for a summary.

The general Sophoclean formula used for both of these plays contain a Winner, a Loser, and a Seer. The Winner, being the character who values the will of the gods, ends the play in a positive light; either being blessed or by getting what they want. The Loser, being the character who values their own will over the gods' will, end up devastated and lose their will to continue normal life. The Seer is an oracle who holds three roles: a human nature, a listener to the gods, and a seer of fate. This character, while seemingly the one who could influence the play the most, is actually the character who seems to be stuck outside the realm of action.

Oedipus solving the Sphinx's riddle

In Oedipus the King, Oedipus is the Loser. He is shown to be arrogant, likening himself to Apollo, and disrespectful to the voice of the gods, the Seer Teiresias. He ends up finding out about his already-occurred fate: he killed his father and married mother. This results in his mother/wife killing herself, and Oedipus, in his despair, gouging out his own eyes and losing his kingship to Kreon.

Kreon, in turn, acts as the Winner. He is shown to be considerate of the will of the gods by Jocasta and the chorus of Theban elders. He won't even banish Oedipus from the city once it is learned that it is him who is polluting it and causing the plague until he double checks what to do from Apollo's oracle. While Kreon was falsely and irrationally accused by Oedipus early on in the play, it is Kreon who inherits Oedipus' kingship and power in the end.

Antigone mourning for Polyneikes

In Antigone, it is actually Kreon who is the Loser. It is important that to know that these two plays, while both written by Sophocles, were independent works, not continuations. Kreon is shown to be arrogant, being more concerned for the respect shown to his city than the rites the gods demand to be done to the dead. He, like Oedipus, accuses Teiresias of being corrupt when Teiresias tries to warn Kreon to bury the Polyneikes and free Antigone for his own sake. By the time Kreon reluctantly agrees to Teiresias' wise words, Antigone has already hanged herself, which results in Kreon's son, Haimon, who is in love with Antigone, to kill himself, which results in Kreon's wife to kill herself. Kreon is left devastated and wishes for death in the end.

Antigone, despite her death, is the Winner. Throughout the play Antigone is shown to be a stubborn, independent woman who would rather die than compromise. While she makes this choice in the end, she didn't need too: she had beaten Kreon in the battle of wills. She, a woman, bested Kreon, a king. It is this same woman who inspired the name of the play.

This may seem like a simple theodicy approach: if you don't live by the gods, the gods will punish you. But this isn't the case, and if it were it would probably not inspire many. The gods do not come down and curse anyone for their actions. Instead, it is fate that causes strife, revealed by the agent of the gods, the Seer. This separates the gods' will from fate itself. Yet whom does fate affect? Those whose lives do not honor the gods. It implies that that fate is in fact naturally and unavoidably punishing those who do not honor the gods. Which further implies that the gods' laws are for our own benefit, not theirs. This gives the inspiring message to those who saw it: it promoted the goodness of the gods' role in their lives and showed the consequences of those who did not honor that role. This mechanism shows that one should not honor the gods out of fear of punishment from mere divine bullies, but rather one is to honor the gods who are looking out for our best interest, knowing of a separate force outside of their control, Fate.

Butterbeer

I've been wanting to make butterbeer for a while, and I finally got the chance. For those who don't know what butterbeer is, it is a fictional drink made up by J. K. Rowling in the Harry Potter series.  Universal Studios makes a Rowling-approved butter beer, and many fans have made their own recipes in attempt to replicate it. I flat out stole the recipe from this blog after googling it, and I give Jessica from Bake Me Away full credit. Of course, I did minor variations. Here are the ingredients I used:

Whipping Cream
Reddi-whip
A & W Cream Soda
Smucker's Butterscotch Topping
Butterscotch schnapps

I have limited supplies living in a dorm, so bear with me on my methods. First of all, the original recipe was for cold butterbeer, and I wanted warm butterbeer since it is March and I'm in Michigan. The first thing I did was pour the cream soda into a tall glass mug. I then poured in a shot of schnapps. Then I poured the whipping cream into a bowl and added three spoonfuls of butterscotch topping and whipped. I don't know if I did that right, I've never whipped anything before. It seemed too creamy so I busted out the reddi-whip and mixed some into it until it seemed like a frothy topping. I then microwaved the mug in intervals of 30 seconds until it was hot to my liking, and then poured the whipped contents on top. The whipped topping was still soupy, but it was good, it made it mix in with the drink and still maintained the beer foam look on top. And that was that. It tasted amazing and I can't wait to make more and experiment with it!

Why Do Kids Turn Away From the Church?

I see a lot of Christian friends on facebook (particularly the older ones) who show genuine concern that they are losing newer generations from the church. Kids will be raised going to church, and then mysteriously stop when they get older. I have seen some good articles and some bad ones, so I thought I would make my own explanation from my own experience. Here are the 2 biggest reasons I see why my generation is dropping their religious devotion:

The Outside World is Demonized
Growing up, many Christian families get caught up in the hype about the modern world being evil. While undoubtedly there is a lot of evil out there, Christians tend to get all "gung ho" to throw a witch hunt against issues that often times are ridiculous in nature. I was not allowed to read the Harry Potter books as a child because there were witches and wizards and witchcraft in it. However, I was encouraged to read the Chronicles of Narnia, which also contained witches, wizards, and witchcraft. Parents weren't looking into the content of those books, they were just looking at how it got accepted by the general Christian community. Now, of course, I love Harry Potter, and ironically so do my parents now. Christians are also generally told to avoid abbreviations like "X-mas", that our children are being brainwashed because they took prayer out of schools, and that the world is only a few thousand years old, science is wrong because it is straying from God. When children question these things, they generally find that these are all misinformed. "X-mas" has historically been an abbreviation used by Christians, X being the Greek letter "chi" (Χ or χ), which is the first letter in the Greek word for Christ, which is Χριστός. Children can still pray in schools, it just can't be led by teachers so that students don't feel religion being pushed on them by authority. And there is a lot of literature to suggest the world is billions of years old, not thousands, which is vastly supported by the academic community. Children who were raised in the church start to see that the secular world isn't all that bad, and actually seems to make sense.

Church Kids Are Not Knowledgeable
When kids leave the bubble of their families, they find all sorts of questions being thrown their way. Youth groups tend to focus more on feeling God than thinking about him. I stopped by a proxe station to participate in with my bible study last year. For those of you who don't know, a proxe station is a booth set up by Christians to talk to strangers about God. I love talking to strangers about their religious views, so I was excited. When I got there, a Christian girl who I didn't know was talking to a non-Christian who had really good questions. He asked her about the Trinity. How did she respond? She simply restated that she believed that a personal relationship with Jesus Christ would grant eternal salvation. He asked about the authorship of the New Testament. She responds with her relationship with God. Now I understand that the Trinity is a hard concept, but she actually had someone asking questions about her faith and she ignored them! I actually jumped in the conversation and engaged his questions and cut the girl off when she was ungracefully trying to avoid his questions. The guy left and shook my hand and thanked me for talking to him, asking what my views were. I said I was a Christian and he was surprised. As was the girl. This is a very common problem: Christians are willing to die defending their belief in "God's Word" but are generally uninterested in reading it or studying its background. They don't know how to deal with hard questions because, generally speaking, they are less interested in understanding their worldview than sharing it. For a Christian looking for answers once they leave home, this is a major turn off. It seems like Christians are more interested in feeling good than understanding reality.

So how could either of these things be avoided? As parents, look into what you are deeming "sinful" or "evil". Don't be so quick to jump on the bandwagon if churches are eagerly boycotting something. If your child asks you a difficult question, answer honestly. If you don't know the answer, research it on your own. Group mentality is a scary thing, and when it's under a religious label, your children might be wary to put that label on themselves if they think it is ridiculous to the real world. And if you are currently a youngster or a Christian or anyone for that matter, ask questions! Look for answers! Understand your faith and be able to tell people why it is you are living differently than others. In the modern age it is one of the biggest insults to be labeled "ignorant". If you are wanting to share your faith, do so in a intelligent way. Or if you really feel uneasy about your lack of knowledge, do less evangelizing with your mouth and focus on sharing your faith with your actions, which I would argue is the most persuasive form of sharing the gospel.

Now of course there is a lot that cannot be avoided. Attitudes towards premarital sex, gay marriage, and general place of religion in everyday life have changed a lot throughout the years and the conservative church is naturally under attack. There's a good chance that kids will change their views. But what better way to defend your child against heterodoxy than through understanding and genuineness? While Christians tend to not want to "lean on their own understanding", a religion cannot continue to grow unless it is supported by rationalization. That doesn't mean than your own rationales should replace your faith, but it should instead support it to make it stronger.