23. A Macabre Disaster That Helped Fuel the Enlightenment
The exact number of casualties caused by the 1755 Lisbon earthquake, fire, and tsunami, is unknown. Due to the paucity of records at the time and the chaos that followed the disaster, the figure is probably forever unknowable. However, the best estimates indicate that victims might have numbered as high as 60,000 dead in Lisbon alone. The grand total for the entire region that includes Lisbon and its surroundings might have been as high as 100,000 deaths, plus many more injured. The disaster’s impact was not limited to loss of lives and damage to people and property.
The Lisbon earthquake struck just as the Enlightenment had begun to get into full swing. It inspired significant philosophical discourse and exchanges that furthered the development of theodicy, or the question of how a just and good God could allow what had happened in the Portuguese capital to take place. The thorniest theodicy question was why God had sent an earthquake to crush His worshippers by the thousands in cathedrals and churches as they gathered in prayer to celebrate All Saints Day and glorify His name. The question was compounded and made thornier yet by the macabre twist of survivors who fervently prayed for God’s mercy, only for Him to send a tsunami that drowned them in Lisbon’s harbor.