Evil & Evolution: A Theodicy

 

First published in 1984, revised, updated and republished in 2004, and now available here for reading on this website, this book deals with the problem of evil or "theodicy" (God's justice). The book contends that the process of evolution, particularly as it bears on the emergence of free will, rather than being a barrier to faith, gives us the key to understanding its greatest obstacle—the existence of so much suffering in the world. It further advances the still contested claim that God is truly "our fellow sufferer" in our struggle to overcome evil in all of its many forms.

 

Excerpts from reviews of the first edition:

 "An impressive book…dealing with serious materials in an accessible way…making concrete and vivid the concept of a vulnerable, suffering God who can identify so closely with our pain and vulnerability."                                                                                                                                       —Harold Kushner, author: When Bad Things Happen to Good People

 "It is a bold adventure indeed to advance without either hesitation or embarrassment a theodicy which attempts to 'make sense of all the facts' including those of apparently meaningless suffering. …By refusing evil to a realm human thought cannot approach, Kropf stands in the tradition of those thinkers who have acknowledged and promoted the dignity of human reason."                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             — James Pambrun, Église et Théologie

"Only the very unperceptive will finish this book untouched and unchanged by the challenges, intellectually and spiritually…the reader...will come with him at last not to a point of security and a final answer, but to the point of acceptance of ultimate risk."                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  — Margaret Kinnaird, The Teilhard Review

"There is in the writings of Kropf an evolutionary convergence of his own concentrated and concerned thought. He approaches the problem of evil in the full dress of modernity: participation, challenge-struggle, and change. But his disciplined mind will not allow for easy answers, only vital choices—and an unbounding transcendence."                                                                                                                                                                                              — A.J. Morse

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About the author:

Richard W. Kropf holds doctorates in theology from the University of Ottawa and St. Paul University, Ottawa. His publications include Teilhard, Scripture, and Revelation (1980) and Faith: Security and Risk: The Dynamics of Spiritual Growth (1990, 2003), The Faith of Jesus: The Jesus of History and the Stages of Faith (2006), and with Joseph Provenzano, Logical Faith: Introducing a Scientific of Spirituality and Religion (2007, 2009). A former parish priest, college chaplain, and instructor in philosophy, psychology, religious studies and theology, he retired in 1981 to write in his cabin in Michigan's "northwoods".

View Table of Contents

Or go directly to Preface

Printed Copies may be ordered directly from Wipf & Stock Publishers, Eugene OR, http://www.wipfandstock.com

Or, for more information, contact rwkropf (@) stellamar.net

 

 

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