Pathways In Theodicy

Why does God permit evil and suffering? This question, known as the problem of evil in theological and philosophical circles, has perennially vexed Christian theology. Academic studies on the problem of evil, however, have failed to move the conversation forward in recent years. In this volume, designed for students and scholars alike, Mark S. M. Scott traces the major models and motifs in Christian explanations for evil (called theodicies) and argues for a thorough rethinking of the problem of evil and theodicy based on distinctly Christian theological criteria and resources.

Why does God permit evil and suffering? This question, known as the problem of evil in theological and philosophical circles, has perennially vexed Christian theology. Academic studies on the problem of evil, however, have failed to move the conversation forward in recent years. In this volume, designed for students and scholars alike, Mark S. M. Scott traces the major models and motifs in Christian explanations for evil (called theodicies) and argues for a thorough rethinking of the problem of evil and theodicy based on distinctly Christian theological criteria and resources.

2023 College Theology Society Best Book Award 2023 Catholic Media Association Third Place Award, Theology – Morality, Ethics, Christology, Mariology, and Redemption 2023 Association of Catholic Publishers Second Place Award, Theology Dust in the Blood considers the harrowing realities of life with depression from a Christian theological perspective. In conversation with popular Christian theologies of depression that justify why this suffering exists and prescribe how people ought to relate to it, Jessica Coblentz offers another Christian approach to this condition: she reflects on depression as a wilderness experience. Weaving first-person narratives of depression, contemporary theologies of suffering, and ancient biblical tales of the wilderness, especially the story of Hagar, Coblentz argues for and contributes to an expansion of Christian ideas about what depression is, how God relates to it, and how Christians should understand and respond to depression in turn.

A rigorous study of the problem of evil in Islamic theology Like their Jewish and Christian co-religionists, Muslims have grappled with how God, who is perfectly good, compassionate, merciful, powerful, and wise permits intense and profuse evil and suffering in the world. At its core, Islamic Theology and the Problem of Evil explores four different problems of evil: human disability, animal suffering, evolutionary natural selection, and Hell. Each study argues in favor of a particular kind of explanation or justification (theodicy) for the respective evil. Safaruk Chowdhury unpacks the notion of evil and its conceptualization within the mainstream Sunni theological tradition, and the various ways in which theologians and philosophers within that tradition have advanced different types of theodicies. He not only builds on previous works on the topic, but also looks at kinds of theodicies previously unexplored within Islamic theology, such as an evolutionary theodicy. Distinguished by its application of an analytic-theology approach to the subject and drawing on insights from works of both medieval Muslim theologians and philosophers and contemporary philosophers of religion, this novel and highly systematic study will appeal to students and scholars, not only of theology but of philosophy as well.

The Problem of Evil and the Predicament of Theodicy As Christians or theists we are moved to share the truth of God’s love for humankind. But how can we speak of such providential care in a world rife with crime, war, racism, genocide, and even ecocide? In response to this predicament, a theodicy proposes a rational “defense” of God’s goodness that offers consolation to victims and hope to all believers. Truths about Evil, Sin, and the Demonic provides a sweeping history of the discipline of theodicy that focuses on its strategic turning points and its possible future. Belitsos argues that, because of the atrocities of the last century and the threat of horrendous evils in the coming century, we need to marshal the most explanatory elements of all previous theodicies and then drive toward an “integrative” model based on a creative synthesis. The author also turns to a modern revelatory source that supports his argument for such a “meta-theodicy.” He concludes by critically engaging with this source and the entire tradition in his call for an apophatically informed integral theodicy.

Pentecostals emphasize that God is still the Healer of all illnesses, implying that God answers all prayers. What about those who are not healed? How do we explain suffering? Why does a good God allow suffering? Is God not powerful enough to prevent it? In this publication, the author reconsiders these questions from a Pentecostal hermeneutical perspective to develop a novel way to think about God’s involvement with suffering among people. His experimental theology speculates how a Pentecostal ethos accommodates a theodicy that acknowledges suffering and God’s involvement in people’s lives. Although the book is a theologically constituted attempt, anyone can follow and understand its arguments. It concludes with alternative views of suffering, evil, God’s loving attention to people, the doctrine of original sin, and Satan. The author also suggests some ways to respond to suffering.

This book deconstructs the boundaries between Jewish and Christian cultures while at the same time redefining what it means to be Jewish in relation to Christianity in the twentieth century. Consequently, this analysis reveals the emergence of modern Jewish theologies out of the complex negotiations between Jewish thinkers and their Christian milieu.

A Note from the Editor What Can Theology Offer Psychology? Some Considerations in the Context of Depression Jessica Coblentz The Accompaniment of Psychology and Theology: A Response to Jessica Coblentz Anthony H. Ahrens A Force for Good: When and Why Religion Predicts Prosocial Behavior Karina Schumann Haunted Salvation: The Generational Consequences of Ecclesial Sex Abuse and the Conditions for Conversion Stephanie Edwards and Kimberly Humphrey The Body and Posttraumatic Healing: A Teresian Approach Julia Feder What is This Hope?: Insights from Christian Theology and Positive Psychology Barbara Sain Christian Meaning-Making through Suffering in Theology and Psychology of Religion Jason McMartin, Eric Silverman, M. Elizabeth Lewis Hall, Jamie Aten, and Laura Shannonhouse White Fragility as White Epistemic Disorientation Stephen R. Calme The Ontological Priority of Being a Body Beth Zagrobelny Lofgren ‘Resilient Faithfulness’: A Dynamic Dialectic Between the Trans- cendent and Physical Dimensions of the Human Person Christopher Krall, S.J. The Pastoral Mystique: A Feminist Ecclesiological Approach to Clergy Burnout David von Schlichten Psyche, Soul, and Salvation: Psychology, Theology, and the Science of the Human and Its Place in Theology Christopher McMahon Book Reviews