Hurricanes and Theodicy in Twentieth and Twenty-First Century American Protestantism

Theodicy occupies a significant place in American Christianity and the broader culture of the United States. However, only a small amount of scholarship exists on the intersection of theology, popular religion, and natural disasters in American Christianity. The discussions that do exist around the theodicy of natural disasters focus on the theological content and potential applications of any given theodicy and are rarely historicized. I contend that looking at Christian responses to natural disasters alongside theodicy reveals the changing nature of American Christianity across the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Furthermore, by looking at the reactions to hurricanes by different strands of Protestantism, we can begin to understand a hitherto underappreciated element in America’s particular vulnerability to the effect of natural disasters: A religiously encouraged acceptance of risk. The ways Americans theologize natural disasters or do not, are historically contingent and reflect the movements and trends in American Christianity at any given time. I argue that protestant responses to natural disasters reveal the fears, anxieties, and preoccupations of any movement and moment within American Christianity. Each movement, by confronting or ignoring the causes of natural disasters, contributed in its own way to a cultural acceptance of vulnerability by a focus on the aftermath of any given event rather than future minimizing of risk.