The Redemptive Nature of Suffering

Prof. Paul Gondreau reflects on the profound meaning of suffering, disability, and human frailty in light of Christ’s redemptive suffering, emphasizing shared vulnerability as a source of mercy and unity within the Church.

This lecture was given on March 8th, 2025, at Dominican House of Studies.

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About the Speaker:

Prof. Paul Gondreau is professor of theology at Providence College, where he has taught for 26 years. He received his doctorate in theology from the University of Fribourg, Switzerland, doing his dissertation on Christ's full humanity (Christ's human passions/emotions) under the renowned Thomist scholar Jean-Pierre Torrell. He specializes in the thought of St. Thomas Aquinas and has published widely in the areas of Christology (focusing on Christ’s full humanity and his maleness), Christian anthropology, the moral meaning and purpose of human sexuality and sexual difference, the biblical vision of Aquinas' theology, the theology of disability, the sacrament of the Eucharist and the priesthood, and the Catholic vision of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings.

Keywords: Dualism and Suffering, Redemptive Suffering, Human Frailty, Divine Providence in Job, Disability in Christian Theology, Kenosis and the Incarnation, Vulnerability, Pope John Paul II’s Salvifici Doloris, Suffering as Participation in Christ’s Body, Tolkien’s Edenic Yearning