Evil Suffering And Religion

Nine papers from a March 2000 conference in Hanover, Germany explore the views of five major religions on the origin and nature of evil and suffering, and the question of overcoming them. In addition, there are a summary and critique from by a Christian theologian, the concluding discussion, and a summary of conversation between the representatives after the conclusion of the presentation. No subject index is provided. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Fully revised and updated, this edition explores the resources which the world's religions have offered us in understanding and coping with evil and suffering, and assesses the rationality and moral force of the main explanations.

One Bible, Many Answers In God's Problem, the New York Times bestselling author of Misquoting Jesus challenges the contradictory biblical explanations for why an all-powerful God allows us to suffer.

Do Hindus, Buddhists, Christians, Jews, and Muslims tend to experience pain in fundamentally different ways? Are suffering and human evil equally difficult problems in these particular religious traditions? How is each person to deal with or overcome suffering? In Evil and Suffering, acknowledged experts in each religion offer clear answers to these and similar questions. Through their discussions, the history and diversity of the traditions are also revealed. In this volume, editor Jacob Neusner address the topic from the standpoint of Judaism, Bruce Chilton presents the perspective of Christianity. Jonathan Brockopp discusses Islam, Brian K. Smith presents Hinduism, and Charles Hallisley discusses Buddhism.

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.

Tsunamis, earthquakes, famines, diseases, wars -- these and other devastating forces lead Christians to ask painful questions. Is God all-powerful? Is God good? How can God allow so much innocent human suffering? These questions, taken together, have been called the "theodicy problem," and in this book Thomas Long explores what preachers can and should say in response ... he offers biblically based approaches to preaching on theodicy, guided by Jesus' parable of the wheat and the tares and the "greatest theodicy text in Scripture"--The book of Job. - from book jacket.

Dennis Jensen looks at two very important problems that have led many to reject religious belief generally and Christianity in particular: Why has God allowed the extreme suffering we find in our world? And Can religion be blamed for much of this suffering? He looks at not only the evil so often associated with religions--inquisitions, holy wars, pograms, witch hunts--but also some of the difficulties found specifically in the Bible. Did the God of the Bible command or advocate mass murder, homophobia, slavery? Is the New Testament anti-Semitic? Jensen argues persuasively that a fully biblical teaching does not advocate subservience of women in today's society, church, or family. It does not condemn all same gender sexual relations or transgender identity. It does not teach an eternal hell. As just one of the many fascinating topics he tackles, one of the more important biblical reasons suggested for the existence of evil is that God wants to know whether we will seek to stop or alleviate the suffering we see, whether we will learn to have God's heart, whether we will hate evil and anguish over the hurting as God does.