Beyond Theodicy analyzes the rising tide of objections to explanations and justifications for why God permits evil and suffering in the world. In response to the Holocaust, striking parallels have emerged between major Jewish and Christian thinkers centering on practical faith approaches that offer meaning within suffering. Author Sarah K. Pinnock focuses on Jewish thinkers Martin Buber and Ernst Bloch and Christian thinkers Gabriel Marcel and Johann Baptist Metz to present two diverse rejections of theodicy, one existential, represented by Buber and Marcel, and one political, represented by Bloch and Metz. Pinnock interweaves the disciplines of philosophy of religion, post-Holocaust thought, and liberation theology to formulate a dynamic vision of religious hope and resistance.
- theodicy,
- Holocaust,
- Jewish,
- Christian,
- theology,
- political science,
- philosophy,
- Existentialism,
- Martin Buber,
- Ernst Bloch,
- Gabriel Marcel,
- Johann Baptist Metz
Types of approaches to Holocaust suffering: practical responses as alternatives to theodicy -- Existential encounter with evil: Gabriel Marcel's response to suffering as a trial -- Dialogical faith: Martin Buber's I-thou response to suffering and its meaning -- Marxist theory and practice: scientific and humanist Marxism -- Faith as hope in history: Ernst Bloch and political post-Holocaust theology -- Solidarity and resistance: Johann Baptist Metz's theodicy-sensitive response to suffering -- Pragmatics, existential and political: comparison, contrast, and complementarity -- Beyond theodicy: evaluating theodicy from a practical perspective.