Suffering

by McGill, Arthur C.; Ramsey, Paul; May, William F.

• ISBN13: 9781597529457
• ISBN10: 1597529451
• Edition: Revised
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2007-01-01
• Publisher: Wipf & Stock Pub

Summary

How can an omnipotent God allow suffering and violence to pervade the world? The author approaches this disturbing question by examining the concept of power. At opposing ends of a spectrum lie two powers--demonic power that is violent, destructive, and dominative, and the power of God that is creative, totally open, self-giving, and expansive. Through consideration of power, McGill provides reflections on the nature of God's inner life in the Trinity and concludes that service characterizes God's relationship to the world, not domination.Combining the scholarship and clarity that characterizes the greatest theological writing of our time, Suffering addresses the need for renewed faith in the almighty powerfulness of God's self-communication and self-giving until the time when the pretenses of demonic power are swept away.

Author Biography

Arthur C. McGill was the Bussey Professor of Theology at Harvard Divinity School

Table of Contents

Foreword	p. 7
Violence and Theology	p. 19
The Terms of Our Inquiry	p. 22
From Darkness Toward Light	p. 26
Theology and Scripture	p. 29
Theology and the Unbeliever	p. 31
In Summary	p. 32
Demonism-The Spiritual Reality of Our Day	p. 34
The Violence We Imagine	p. 35
The New Shape of the Demonic	p. 47
The Demonic as the Decisive Form of Evil	p. 51
Service as the Power of God	p. 53
A Shockingly Impractical Creed	p. 55
The Power That Is Weakness	p. 61
Self-giving as the Inner Life of God	p. 64
Is the Trinity an Outmoded Doctrine?	p. 66
The Unfinished Work of Nicaea	p. 67
Does God Need a Son?	p. 70
A Relationship of Total Self-giving	p. 74
Needy, yet Still God!	p. 76
Service, Not Domination	p. 79
Athanasius and Arius: A Study in Contrasts	p. 80
The Victory of Christ	p. 83
No Two-faced God!	p. 84
What Is the Source of Ungodly Power?	p. 86
The Power of Evil Is the Power to Kill	p. 88
We Are as the Power That Rules Us	p. 90
The Power of God in the Suffering of Christ	p. 93
No Longer Slaves, but Sons	p. 98
Resting in Our Need	p. 99
The Lovelessness of Decent People	p. 100
The Excessive Love of the Samaritan	p. 103
Who Is My Neighbor?	p. 105
Who Is the Good Samaritan?	p. 108
Love and Suffering	p. 112
Loving in Our Need	p. 113
The World Reacts	p. 114
The Christian and Sorrow	p. 115
In God Alone We Trust	p. 118
A Postscript on Theological Method	p. 120
The Conditions of Our Quest	p. 122
The Unending Nature of Our Quest	p. 128
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