Donald Dwight Evans (September 21, 1927 â January 5, 2018) was a Canadian educator, psychotherapist, and spiritual counsellor.
Born in Thunder Bay, Ontario, Evans obtained a B.A. from the University of Toronto in 1950, following which he earned a B.Phil. from Oxford University and a B.D. from McGill University. He was ordained as a pastor in the United Church of Canada in 1955. He was a professor of divinity at the University of Toronto from 1960 to 1964 (during which time he received a D.Phil. from Oxford), an associate professor of philosophy from 1964 to 1968, and full professor from 1968 until 1993.
In his early work, his âÂÂâÂÂThe Logic of Self-InvolvementâÂÂâ (1963), Evans finds the meaning of religion within language. In his later works, his 1980 âÂÂâÂÂFaith, Authenticity, and MoralityâÂÂâ and his 1981 âÂÂâÂÂStruggle and Fulfillment,âÂÂâ Evans finds the basis of religious belief in religious experience. He died on January 5, 2018, aged 90.
âÂÂâÂÂâÂÂIndignant compassionâÂÂâÂÂâ is experienced by both believers and non-believers in God. It is a common identification with the suffering of others. The prominent idea is that both believers and non-believers grieve and rebel against suffering. To explain this term, Evans gives two fictional atheists--DostoievskyâÂÂs Ivan Karamazov and CamusâÂÂs Dr. Bernard Rieux--as examples of those whose âÂÂcompassion is compounded with a sense of outrage and revulsion that nature and men should inflict mental and physical torture on human beings.â Evans also quotes D. M. MackinnonâÂÂs âÂÂâÂÂChristian Faith and Communist FaithâÂÂâ (1953) âÂÂthe man who revolts, determined somehow to affirm in this most desperate situation that God did not so make the world, is met by the mystery of GodâÂÂs own revolt against the world He made.â According to Evans, a belief in a God of âÂÂâÂÂâÂÂindignant compassionâÂÂâÂÂâ means a belief in a God who suffers, which is what Bonhoeffer illustrates whenâÂÂduring his incarceration in a Nazi prisonâÂÂhe wrote âÂÂChristians stand by God in his hour of grieving.âÂÂ
Logic of Self-involvement: A Philosophical Study of Everyday Language with Special Reference to the Christian Use of Language about God as Creator, 1963, SCM Press, In Series edited by Ian Ramsey and John McIntyre