Download or read book A Theodicy for a Suffering World with a Hidden God written by Philip Pegan and published by Lexington Books. This book was released on 2024-01-26 with total page 245 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: If God exists, why is there so much pain and suffering, and why isn’t his existence more obvious? In A Theodicy for a Suffering World with a Hidden God, Philip Pegan develops a theodicy in answer to these questions. This theodicy is consistent with theological determinism—the belief that everything is determined by the will of God—and with the possibility that human beings are entirely physical in nature. It affirms that all creatures capable of suffering will eventually enjoy a life of eternal happiness and shows that it is plausible that, if God allows suffering in such a creature, there is an outweighing good that he can bring about in the life of that creature. Pegan’s theodicy is compatible with the claim that the world is unsurpassably good. It assumes value realism but could be revised in a way that preserves its framework and main substance while assuming value antirealism.
Download or read book Theodicy written by Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz and published by e-artnow. This book was released on 2020-05-15 with total page 401 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Theodicy" is a book of philosophy by the German polymath Gottfried Leibniz published in 1710, whose optimistic approach to the problem of evil is thought to have inspired Voltaire's "Candide". Much of the work consists of a response to the ideas of the French philosopher Pierre Bayle, with whom Leibniz carried on a debate for many years. The "Theodicy" tries to justify the apparent imperfections of the world by claiming that it is optimal among all possible worlds. It must be the best possible and most balanced world, because it was created by an all powerful and all knowing God, who would not choose to create an imperfect world if a better world could be known to him or possible to exist. In effect, apparent flaws that can be identified in this world must exist in every possible world, because otherwise God would have chosen to create the world that excluded those flaws. Leibniz distinguishes three forms of evil: moral, physical, and metaphysical. Moral evil is sin, physical evil is pain, and metaphysical evil is limitation. God permits moral and physical evil for the sake of greater goods, and metaphysical evil is unavoidable since any created universe must necessarily fall short of God's absolute perfection.
Download or read book Raging with Compassion written by John Swinton and published by SCM Press. This book was released on 2017-10-30 with total page 277 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In "Raging with Compassion", Michael Ramsey prize-winning author John Swinton argues for a practical theodicy, one embodied in the life and practices of the Christian community. This practicality does not seek to provide an explanation for the existence of evil, but rather presents ways in which evil and suffering can be resisted and transformed. This, he insists, will enable Christians to live faithfully with unanswered questions as they await God's redemption of the whole creation. Swinton explores essential practices of redemption - lament, forgiveness, thoughtfulness, hospitality, and friendship - drawing out their implications for the faithful resistance of evil. Enhanced by case studies from current events and by Swinton's own experience as a pastor and mental health nurse, "Raging with Compassion" seeks to inspire fresh Christian responses and modes of practice in our broken, fallen world.
Download or read book Theodicy in the World of the Bible written by Antii Laato and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2021-11-08 with total page 884 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Is it justice when deities allow righteous human beings to suffer? This question has occupied the minds of theologians and philosophers for many centuries and is still hotly disputed. All kinds of argument have been developed to exonerate the 'good God' of any guilt in this respect. Since Leibniz it has become customary to describe such attempts as 'theodicy', the justification of God. In modern philosophical debate this use of 'theodicy' has been questioned. However, this volume shows that it is still a workable term for a concept that originated much earlier than is commonly realised. Experts from many disciplines follow the emergence of the theodicy problem from ancient Near Eastern texts of the second millennium BCE through biblical literature, from both Old and New Testament, intertestamental writings including Qumran, Philo Judaeus and rabbinic Judaism.
Download or read book Wandering in Darkness written by Eleonore Stump and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2012-09-13 with total page 688 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Only the most naïve or tendentious among us would deny the extent and intensity of suffering in the world. Can one hold, consistently with the common view of suffering in the world, that there is an omniscient, omnipotent, perfectly good God? This book argues that one can. Wandering in Darkness first presents the moral psychology and value theory within which one typical traditional theodicy, namely, that of Thomas Aquinas, is embedded. It explicates Aquinas's account of the good for human beings, including the nature of love and union among persons. Eleonore Stump also makes use of developments in neurobiology and developmental psychology to illuminate the nature of such union. Stump then turns to an examination of narratives. In a methodological section focused on epistemological issues, the book uses recent research involving autism spectrum disorder to argue that some philosophical problems are best considered in the context of narratives. Using the methodology argued for, the book gives detailed, innovative exegeses of the stories of Job, Samson, Abraham and Isaac, and Mary of Bethany. In the context of these stories and against the backdrop of Aquinas's other views, Stump presents Aquinas's own theodicy, and shows that Aquinas's theodicy gives a powerful explanation for God's allowing suffering. She concludes by arguing that this explanation constitutes a consistent and cogent defense for the problem of suffering.
Download or read book The Triumph of God Over Evil written by William Hasker and published by InterVarsity Press. This book was released on 2008-03-24 with total page 229 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Noted philosopher William Hasker explores a full range of questions concerning the problem of evil. Hasker forges constructive answers in some depth showing why the evil in the world does not provide evidence of a moral fault in God, the world's creator and governor.
Download or read book The Suffering of God written by and published by Fortress Press. This book was released on 1984-10-01 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this comprehensive and thought-provoking study, Terence Fretheim focuses on the theme of divine suffering, an aspect of our understanding of God which both the church and scholarship have neglected. Maintaining that "metaphors matter," Fretheim carefully examines the ruling and anthropomorphic metaphors of the Old Testament and discusses them in the context of current biblical-theological scholarship. His aim is to broaden our understanding of the God of the Old Testament by showing that "suffering belongs to the person and purpose of God".
Download or read book Reasonable Faith written by William Lane Craig and published by Crossway. This book was released on 2008 with total page 418 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This updated edition by one of the world's leading apologists presents a systematic, positive case for Christianity that reflects the latest work in the contemporary hard sciences and humanities. Brilliant and accessible.
Download or read book Satan and the Problem of Evil written by Gregory A. Boyd and published by InterVarsity Press. This book was released on 2014-08-09 with total page 456 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Where does evil come from? If there is a sovereign creator God, as Christian faith holds, is this God ultimately responsible for evil? Does God's sovereignty mean that God causes each instance of sin and suffering? How do Satan, his demons and hell fit into God's providential oversight of all creation and history? How does God interact with human intention and action? If people act freely, does God know in particular every human decision before the choice is made? In this important book Gregory A. Boyd mounts a thorough response to these ages-old questions, which remain both crucial and contentious, both practical and complex. In this work Boyd defends his scripturally grounded trinitarian warfare theodicy (presented in God at War) with rigorous philosophical reflection and insights from human experience and scientific discovery. Critiquing the classical Calvinist solution to the problem of evil, he advocates an alternative understanding of the sovereignty of the trinitarian God and of the reality of Satan that sheds light on our fallen human condition. While all may not agree with Boyd's conclusions, Satan and the Problem of Evil promises to advance the church's discussion of these critical issues.
Download or read book Theodicy of Love written by John C. Peckham and published by Baker Academic. This book was released on 2018-11-06 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: If God is all powerful and entirely good and loving, why is there so much evil in the world? Based on a close canonical reading of Scripture, this book offers a new approach to the challenge of reconciling the Christian confession of a loving God with the realities of suffering and evil. John Peckham offers a constructive proposal for a theodicy of love that upholds both the sovereignty of God and human freedom, showing that Scripture points toward a framework for thinking about God's love in relation to the world.
Download or read book Suffering and the Sovereignty of God written by John Piper and published by Crossway. This book was released on 2006-09-13 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the last few years, 9/11, a tsunami, Hurricane Katrina, and many other tragedies have shown us that the vision of God in today's churches in relation to evil and suffering is often frivolous. Against the overwhelming weight and seriousness of the Bible, many Christians are choosing to become more shallow, more entertainment-oriented, and therefore irrelevant in the face of massive suffering. In Suffering and the Sovereignty of God, contributors John Piper, Joni Eareckson Tada, Steve Saint, Carl Ellis, David Powlison, Dustin Shramek, and Mark Talbot explore the many categories of God's sovereignty as evidenced in his Word. They urge readers to look to Christ, even in suffering, to find the greatest confidence, deepest comfort, and sweetest fellowship they have ever known.
Download or read book Martin Luther s Hidden God written by Timothy Scott Landrum and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2022-04-05 with total page 126 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The presence of evil in a world said by God to be good is perhaps humanity’s most vexing challenge. “Where is God in all this?” is a universal cry. The answers are as numerous and varied as those offering them, but little is accomplished, it seems, to ease the pain of a God who doesn’t behave according to law, logic, or rationale. Into this melee, Martin Luther waded with his distinction between God preached and God not preached and hiding. Though not always appreciated, Luther’s thought speaks to the various dimensions of the problem and proclaims a definitive answer. Martin Luther’s Hidden God traces the origins of Luther’s thought on the matter, explores how his teaching compliments and conflicts with the teaching offered by certain post-Reformation Lutheran theologians and philosophers of religion, before distilling his thought into a preliminary apologetic for the problem of evil and divine hiddenness that spans the breadth of the issue from a uniquely Lutheran perspective.
Download or read book That All Shall Be Saved written by David Bentley Hart and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2019-09-24 with total page 247 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A stunning reexamination of one of the essential tenets of Christian belief from one of the most provocative and admired writers on religion today “A scathing, vigorous, eloquent attack on those who hold that that there is such a thing as eternal damnation.”—Karen Kilby, Commonweal The great fourth-century church father Basil of Caesarea once observed that, in his time, most Christians believed that hell was not everlasting, and that all would eventually attain salvation. But today, this view is no longer prevalent within Christian communities. In this momentous book, David Bentley Hart makes the case that nearly two millennia of dogmatic tradition have misled readers on the crucial matter of universal salvation. On the basis of the earliest Christian writings, theological tradition, scripture, and logic, Hart argues that if God is the good creator of all, he is the savior of all, without fail. And if he is not the savior of all, the Kingdom is only a dream, and creation something considerably worse than a nightmare. But it is not so. There is no such thing as eternal damnation; all will be saved. With great rhetorical power, wit, and emotional range, Hart offers a new perspective on one of Christianity’s most important themes.
Download or read book The Problem of Animal Pain written by T. Dougherty and published by Springer. This book was released on 2014-07-22 with total page 339 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Animal suffering constitutes perhaps the greatest challenge to rational belief in the existence of God. Considerations that render human suffering theologically intelligible seem inapplicable to animal suffering. In this book, Dougherty defends radical possibilities for animal afterlife that allow a soul-making theodicy to apply to their case.
Download or read book Job and the Mystery of Suffering written by Richard Rohr and published by Gracewing Publishing. This book was released on 1996 with total page 196 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Richard Rohr, internationally known retreat leader, speaker and writer, plumbs the depths of the Job's story and its relevance for us today. Rohr strips Christian faith down to the essentials, beyond glib answers and a "hand-me-down" experience of God, and points the way to true knowing. In this invigorating exploration, the tension between suffering and faith becomes a powerful means to an authentic, open connection with the divine.
Download or read book God Suffering and Disability written by Mary Schaefer Fast and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2019-05-22 with total page 221 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: God, Suffering, and Disability: A Trinitarian Theodicy of the Cross utilizes both Christological and pneumatological perspectives of Luther’s theology of the cross to address the complexities of suffering and disability. Through the lens of the cross, the God who suffers enables humans to “call a thing what it is” by recognizing the suffering that often accompanies disability. Rather than asking “why” the Triune God allows people to suffer, this theodicy of disability focuses on “where” the Father, Son, and Spirit are in that very human experience. As a new theodic construct, “a Trinitarian theodicy of the cross” responds to both the theological concerns of the church and the theoretical apprehensions of society. It encourages Christians to live as theologians of the cross, empowers the faith community by informing both its theology and praxis, and provides a theoretical response to secular society that will enrich the field of disability studies.
Download or read book Hidden Treasures in the Book of Job Reasons to Believe written by Hugh Ross and published by Baker Books. This book was released on 2011-10-01 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Arguably the oldest book in the Bible, the book of Job has a surprising amount to say about some of the newest scientific discoveries and controversies. Far from a book that is just about suffering, Job is filled with rich insight into both ancient and modern questions about the formation of the world the difference between animals and humans cosmology dinosaurs and the fossil record how to care for creation and more With careful consideration and exegesis, internationally known astrophysicist and Christian apologist Hugh Ross adds yet another compelling argument to the case for the veracity of the biblical commentary on the history of the universe, Earth, life, and humanity. Hidden Treasures in the Book of Job shows that the Bible is an accurate predictor of scientific discoveries and a trustworthy source of scientific information, and that both the book of Scripture and the book of nature are consistent both internally and externally.
