Christian Understandings of Evil
The Historical Trajectory
- Theology
- Publisher: Fortress Press (Augsburg Fortress)
- Published: 2016
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Publisher's Description
Throughout the two-thousand-year span of Christian history, believers in Jesus have sought to articulate their faith and their understanding of how God works in the world. How do we, as we examine the vast and varied output of those who came before us, understand the unity and the diversity of their thinking? How do we make sense of our own thought in light of theirs? The Christian Understandings series offers to help. In this exciting volume, Charlene Burns offers a brief but thorough tour through more than two millennia of thought on the nature of evil. Starting with the contexts of the Hebrew Bible and moving forward, Burns outlines the many ways that Christian thought has attempted to deal with the reality of evil and suffering. From a personal Satan and demonic activity, to questions of free will and autonomy, to the nature of God and God’s role in suffering, Burns offers a clear and compelling overview.
Endorsements (2)
“Christian Understandings of Evil is an important, orienting effort... Personally, I wish serious Christians of all types would read this text for a number of reasons. First, it would help disabuse a typical layperson from the many spurious accounts about evil, the devil, and other matters that simply are perpetuated by hearsay. Second, laypeople need to know that Christian doctrine does develop over time given the worldviews at work, the pressures at play, and the changing rationalities and questions people develop in particular settings. Third, given this book's hard work of narrating the ''historical trajectory'' of this theme, it can help set up an awareness of ''how we got here'' on these matters. ...the approach of the author is commendable, which is intentionally doctrinal and theological. Oftentimes on questions related to evil and suffering, philosophical theology overshadows doctrinal theology. Burns is quite intentional to keep the philosophical side of things in service to the doctrinal (which in this book takes the shape of historical survey similar to the approach of a Justo Gonzalez or Jaroslav Pelikan).”
“...[F]or clarity of classic texts as varied as the Book of Job (12-14), Augustine's City of God (65-66), Luther's The Bondage of the Will (96), and even John Hick's seminal God of Love from the twentieth century (171-73), one could scarcely write more succinctly or accessibly than B. has done. In the end, the case for a 'trajectory,' the explicit purpose of the volume as indicated by its subtitle, is duly made.”
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