Below are four excellent introductory pictoral videos that introduce the problem of theodicy, and how we can begin to think about it theologically. No doubt we've all heard people say, (rather dismissively as though this is their lifetime study project): "I don't believe in God because of all the evil and suffering in the world!"... Continue Reading →
In a book way back in 1992 called 'Suffering', Alistair McGrath wrote: "Some say that nothing could ever be adequate recompense for suffering in this world. But how do they know? Have they spoken to anyone who has suffered and subsequently been raised to glory? Have they been through this experience themselves? One of the... Continue Reading →
One of life's great questions centres not on what happens to us, but how we will live in and through whatever happens. We cannot change most circumstances in our lives. I am white, middle class, and I have a good education. I have not always made conscious decisions about these things. Very little of what... Continue Reading →
Many of the 1960's civil rights workers Robert Coles consulted in his psychiatric research came from middle-class families. Their parents nagged the kids about getting a real job and making something of themselves. One of them responded to his mother's concerned prayers over him: 'I wonder what Jesus said, listening to her prayers! I felt... Continue Reading →
"If we fix our eyes upon the place where the course of the world reaches its lowest point, where its vanity is unmistakable, where its groanings are most bitter and the divine incognito most impenetrable, we shall encounter there - Jesus Christ. . . The transformation of all things occurs where the riddle of human... Continue Reading →
For too long Christians from the West that have taken the time to visit what is romantically called "The Holy Land" have contributed to a terrible injustice. They dream of walking where Jesus walked, but all the while, the clock ticks and the coach waits, whilst they, rather ironically, run where Jesus walked. The Sea... Continue Reading →
"Nothing could be farther from the truth than the facile belief that God only manifests Himself in progress, in the improvements of standards of living, in the spread of medicine and reforms of abuses, in the diffusion of organized Christianity. The reaction from this type of theistic meliorism, which a few years ago had almost... Continue Reading →
A short post on a BIG problem: The follower of Jesus does not (nor should not) claim to have all the answers to the perplexities of life, although too many pretend that they do (over-realised eschatology is by definition ‘faking it’ – we would do well to remember Paul said that Christians see through a... Continue Reading →
"Contrary to what might be expected, I look back on experiences that at the same time seemed especially desolating and painful with particular satisfaction. Indeed, I can say with complete truthfulness that everything I have learned in my seventy-five years in this world, everything that has truly enhanced and enlightened my existence, has been through... Continue Reading →
Gralefrit Theology 