The Meaning of Pain

Theological perspectives

Abstract

This article is a reworking of a paper that the author presented on the occasion of the Conference “Human Suffering: Hope for a Cure and the Search for Meaning: History and Perspectives for the Care of Suffering in Memory of a Pioneer, Enrico Cavallini”, which took place on 27 September 2015 at Polo Lionello (Figline and Incisa Valdarno, Firenze). The author’s intention is to offer a proposal regarding the meaning of suffering, in an anthropological and theological key. On the basis of the interpretative importance of experience both in the search for meaning and in the perception of suffering, a proposal is sketched of its possible ontological status.