The Problem of Evil & the Problem of God

Creative and original, here is D. Z. Phillips's most systematic attempt to address the problem of evil. He argues that the problem is inextricably linked to our conception of God and that the concept of God in recent philosophy of religion is problematic, even harmful. That intellectual inheritance, he claims, attempts to distinguish between logical and existential problems of evil and offers us distorted accounts of God's omnipotence and will. As a result, God is ridiculed out of existence or found unfit before the bar of decency. Yet Phillips elucidates in a second part a neglected tradition in which we reach a different understanding of God's presence amid suffering and which addresses the ultimate question of how God can be said to be with those who are crushed by life's afflictions. This new work is an ideal text for students of philosophy, religion, or theology, but it also speaks clearly to anyone who reflects seriously on the danger of adding to human evil by the way in which we write and think about it.