Ex-Voto Publishing
One of the most famous speeches of all time is a sermon about hell, namely, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” by Jonathan Edwards. Its fame is due largely to its literary qualities, particularly its graphic language. It is rich with passages like the following. “That world of misery, that lake of burning […]
Jerry Walls, Hell: The Logic of Damnation Read More »
Strategically placed at the core of the problem of evil—of how suffering, dysfunction, the unnecessary triviality of unrewarding experiences, and discord can exist in the presence of a God who has perfect power, knowledge, and goodness—lies an understanding of what God is able to do and in fact does. Because God has the power both
Reichenbach, “Evil, Omnipotence, & Process Thought” Read More »
This is a [treatment of] the theoretical problem of evil as it appears in the Western philosophical and theological traditions.… [It is] written from the perspective of the “process” philosophical and theological thought inspired primarily by Alfred North Whitehead and Charles Hartshorne… [C]ertain assumptions about the nature of God’s power that made the problem so
David Ray Griffin, A Process Theodicy Read More »
Christians believe that God is effectively dealing with the problem of evil through the cross—primarily the cross of Christ and secondarily their own. In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus follows the prediction of his own martyrdom (Luke 9:22) with a charge to his disciples: “If any man would come after me, let him deny himself
Marilyn McCord Adams, “Redemptive Suffering” Read More »
I wish to address what is sometimes termed the “existential” form of the problem of evil—the form in which theism is questioned and/or rejected on the basis of moral protest, indignation and outrage at the evils of this world. In the first section of this chapter I shall ask the reader to participate in a
Hasker, “On Regretting the Evils of This World” Read More »
1 The Issue: The specific question assigned to us for discussion is this: Grounds for belief in God aside, do the evils in our world make atheistic belief more reasonable than theistic belief? The initial clause in this question is important. For it is one thing to argue that the evils in our world provide
Rowe, “Evil Is Evidence against Theistic Belief” Read More »
In a widely discussed piece entitled “Evil and Omnipotence” John Mackie repeats this claim: “I think, however, that a more telling criticism can be made by way of the traditional problem of evil. Here it can be shown, not that religious beliefs lack rational support, but that they are positively irrational, that the several parts
Alvin Plantinga, “Does the Theist Contradict Himself?” Read More »
The traditional arguments for the existence of God have been fairly thoroughly criticized by philosophers. But the theologian can, if he wishes, accept this criticism. He can admit that no rational proof of God’s existence is possible. And he can still retain all that is essential to his position, by holding that God’s existence is
J. L. Mackie, “Evil and Omnipotence” Read More »
Levinas’s approach to the problem of evil is to discount the traditional view of theodicy which serves to ‘justify’ or rationalize the evil and suffering that are inflicted on others. Certainly we could agree that the wanton destruction of life is evil. But Levinas’s work helps us to see evil in a different light. For
Emmanuel Levinas, “Useless Suffering” Read More »
Dorothee Sölle (1929–2003) was a German Lutheran activist, theologian, and academic. Her most well-known work on the problem of pain is Suffering, in which she develops a theology of the cross involving three distinct dimensions of affliction. The first dimension is physical pain. Sölle regards physical suffering to be the least consequential of the three
Dorothee Sölle, Suffering Read More »