We ask God to involve himself providentially in our lives, yet we cherish our freedom to choose and act. Employing both theological reflection and philosophical analysis, the author explores how to resolve the interesting and provocative puzzles arising from these seemingly conflicting desires. He inquires what sovereignty means and how sovereigns balance their power and prerogatives with the free responses of their subjects. Since we are physically embodied in a physical world, we also need to ask how this is compatible with our being free agents. Providence raises questions about God's fundamental attributes. The author considers what it means to affirm God's goodness as logically contingent, how being almighty interfaces with God's self-limitation, and the persistent problems that arise from claiming that God foreknows the future. Discussion of these divine properties spills over into the related issues of why God allows, or even causes, pain and suffering; why, if God is all-knowing, we need to petition God repeatedly and encounter so many unanswered prayers; and how miracles, as ways God acts in the world, are possible and knowable. Throughout, the author looks at Scripture and attends to how providence deepens our understanding of God and enriches our lives.
Diving into the Gospel of John displays the rich and diverse arguments John presents for his thesis that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing, readers/listeners will find eternal life. John’s arguments are developed in four parts. The first two chapters develop the author’s literary techniques that are often based on ambiguity and his key symbols and concepts, the understanding of which are essential to fully appreciate the Gospel. Chapters 3 through 6 progressively portray the author’s evidence for his thesis in the form of signs, testimony of those who encounter Jesus, Jesus’s self-identification, and Jesus’s relationships to others. Chapters 7 and 8 show how the author uses theatrically patterned dialogues and triadic discourses to convey Jesus’s identity and mission. Finally, chapters 9 through 11 provide important hints that the author gives for his thesis: Jesus’s appeals to time, the indirect use of seven as the number of completeness, and invocation of parentage in pointing to salvation. Through diving into the Gospel, readers will discover the richness of John’s argument, the Jesus he portrays, and the God Jesus reveals. The book aims to stimulate commitment, challenge mind and spirit, and encourage further reflection and conversation.
The question treated here is an old and important one. The horrors which we daily see or here about exist; they are evils, and evil is often held to establish the falsity of the theistic world view. Evil is believed to be either logically inconsistent with the existence of a good, omnipotent, omniscient, loving, personal deity, or else of such a great amount, prevalence, and variety that it is improbably that God exists. Were either of these true, and consequently were it possible to show that the theistic world view is false or probably false, this would be a significant intellectual and practical conclusion. The author here examines this atheological claim. Professor Reichenbach gives a thoroughgoing philosophical analysis, taking into account all the main modern and contemporary questions, and provides a most careful and cogent, strictly philosophical analysis of the solution to this basic problem. The book is spare and contains not a wasted word, and yet all the questions and objections one might legitimately raise are straightforwardly addressed and reasonably dealt with. Perhaps equally surprisingly in such a concise study, all the relevant literature, both classical and modern, is taken into account. Evil and a Good God will have to be reckoned with by future writers on this topic." -- Back cover.
This book is part of a series - Studies in a Christian World View - that focuses on the relation of Christianity to the various academic disciplines - philosophy, psychology, economics, the arts, history, literature. The series addresses difficult questions that arise when we bring considerations derived from a specific religious worldview to bear on matters common to both Christians and non-Christians.
This book is part of a series - Studies in a Christian World View - that focuses on the relation of Christianity to the various academic disciplines - philosophy, psychology, economics, the arts, history, literature. The series addresses difficult questions that arise when we bring considerations derived from a specific religious worldview to bear on matters common to both Christians and non-Christians.
Diving into the Gospel of John displays the rich and diverse arguments John presents for his thesis that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing, readers/listeners will find eternal life. John’s arguments are developed in four parts. The first two chapters develop the author’s literary techniques that are often based on ambiguity and his key symbols and concepts, the understanding of which are essential to fully appreciate the Gospel. Chapters 3 through 6 progressively portray the author’s evidence for his thesis in the form of signs, testimony of those who encounter Jesus, Jesus’s self-identification, and Jesus’s relationships to others. Chapters 7 and 8 show how the author uses theatrically patterned dialogues and triadic discourses to convey Jesus’s identity and mission. Finally, chapters 9 through 11 provide important hints that the author gives for his thesis: Jesus’s appeals to time, the indirect use of seven as the number of completeness, and invocation of parentage in pointing to salvation. Through diving into the Gospel, readers will discover the richness of John’s argument, the Jesus he portrays, and the God Jesus reveals. The book aims to stimulate commitment, challenge mind and spirit, and encourage further reflection and conversation.
The Old Testament is more than a religious history of the nation of Israel. It is more than a portrait gallery of heroes of the faith. It is even more than a theological and prophetic backdrop to the New Testament. Beyond these, the Old Testament is inspired revelation of the very nature, character, and works of God. As renowned Old Testament scholar Bruce Waltke writes in the preface of this book, the Old Testament’s every sentence is “fraught with theology, worthy of reflection.” This book is the result of decades of reflection informed by an extensive knowledge of the Hebrew language, the best of critical scholarship, a deep understanding of both the content and spirit of the Old Testament, and a thoroughly evangelical conviction. Taking a narrative, chronological approach to the text, Waltke employs rhetorical criticism to illuminate the theologies of the biblical narrators. Through careful study, he shows that the unifying theme of the Old Testament is the “breaking in of the kingdom of God.” This theme helps the reader better understand not only the Old Testament, but also the New Testament, the continuity of the entire Bible, and ultimately, God himself.
We ask God to involve himself providentially in our lives, yet we cherish our freedom to choose and act. Employing both theological reflection and philosophical analysis, the author explores how to resolve the interesting and provocative puzzles arising from these seemingly conflicting desires. He inquires what sovereignty means and how sovereigns balance their power and prerogatives with the free responses of their subjects. Since we are physically embodied in a physical world, we also need to ask how this is compatible with our being free agents. Providence raises questions about God's fundamental attributes. The author considers what it means to affirm God's goodness as logically contingent, how being almighty interfaces with God's self-limitation, and the persistent problems that arise from claiming that God foreknows the future. Discussion of these divine properties spills over into the related issues of why God allows, or even causes, pain and suffering; why, if God is all-knowing, we need to petition God repeatedly and encounter so many unanswered prayers; and how miracles, as ways God acts in the world, are possible and knowable. Throughout, the author looks at Scripture and attends to how providence deepens our understanding of God and enriches our lives.
An examination of the law of karma approached as a philosophical thesis important in its own right and as a unifying concept within certain religious-philosophical systems. The author includes ideas expressed in the 20th century as well as those found in classical Buddhism, Hinduism and Jainism.
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