Sidney Chambers and The Problem of Evil (The Grantchester Mysteries) by James Runcie Read Free Book Online Page A

that his patient, prayerful worship of God and the saving of souls was far more important than easy popularity.
    He had also had his troubles: a dead wife (cancer at thirty-two) and an estranged son who worked as a builder, with no interest in his father’s vocation to the point where Isaiah had once confessed to Sidney that he was not sure if he had ever been ‘the right father for the boy’.
    Sidney was desperately sad as he made his way to the police station to talk to Inspector Keating. He was then asked if he wanted any protection. ‘There’s a full-scale manhunt for Jimmy Benson on now and we have to remember that he’s met you already and knows where you live. The doves were an omen. The blackbird was a warning. Miss Randall has been provided with an officer of her own. I could give you one of my constables.’
    ‘That would look like favouritism. You can’t protect every priest.’
    ‘But you have been warned specifically, Sidney. There were dead doves outside your door. It would give Hildegard some reassurance.’
    ‘I think a police presence might alarm her even more.’
    ‘I will need to know where you are at all times.’
    ‘That shouldn’t be too hard.’
    ‘And I’ll certainly ask my men to keep a look-out. I don’t want to lose you, Sidney.’
    ‘Or anybody else, for that matter. This is evil, Geordie, pure evil.’
     
    The following evening, Sidney confided his darkest anxieties to his curate. He did not want to appear frightened in front of his wife or his parishioners but he was fearful none the less. ‘Perhaps this is something we can’t ever fully comprehend, Leonard; evil without any rational explanation.’
    ‘I am never quite sure, Sidney, if people are wicked from birth or if they become so. I’m interested in how the good can turn or become possessed.’
    ‘Or if evil can be disguised or hidden beneath an apparent normality; that humanity pivots between the two.’
    ‘“This supernatural soliciting cannot be ill, cannot be good.”’
    ‘ Macbeth . Exactly.’
    Hildegard called out that supper was nearly ready. If the men could come and lay the table that would be helpful.
    Leonard continued. ‘I have always been interested in the theory that we are not made in God’s image at all. Instead we are deliberately created incomplete.’
    ‘That is not the traditional Augustinian position, of course,’ Sidney pointed out. ‘As you recall, according to the great church father, we are creatures who have sinned, whether literally or metaphorically, thereby disrupting God’s plans. We have fallen from grace.’
    ‘But if we are now born sinners, if we have already sinned, why then should each generation be punished for the wickedness of their fathers, yea, even unto the end of time?’
    Sidney thought for a minute. ‘Because it underpins the idea of redemption.’
    ‘But why should we have to redeem ourselves? Are not human beings created innocent rather than sinners?’
    ‘As you know, there is an alternative argument.’
    ‘I remember this from theological college; it’s the idea that we are created neither innocent nor guilty but immature, and yet to be fully formed. One has to decide if human beings were once good (and have fallen) or if they have yet to be good? Perhaps this life is not meant to be lived as punishment for the evils of the past (and therefore is our chance to make amends) but is, instead, a vale of soul-making that offers us the chance to evolve into goodness? In this tradition, humankind is still in the process of creation. We look forwards to a future life instead of backwards to a life for which we must atone. Life becomes a classroom, or a laboratory, in which we acquire moral discipline as we live, testing both good and evil.’
    ‘Are you coming?’ Hildegard called once more. ‘I am dishing up.’
    Leonard showed no sign of moving. ‘God is then fully aware of evil; it is not the work of the devil or any other agency.’
    ‘He is responsible