Raging with Compassion

"Thoughtful, heartfelt and deeply faithful..." -- Samuel Wells "It takes a particular gift, persuasiveness, and credibility to challenge a paradigm so ingrained and so evaded by a generation of textbooks. Long experience as both a mental health nurse and a theologian has given John Swinton that credibility. The community of Christians, gathered around a suffering Lord, has unique resilience to respond to evil creatively. This hopeful book recovers a theodicy of action and faithfulness. It has immense pastoral value." -- Ian Torrance This is an important book which should be read by anyone in Christian ministry, dealing as it does with the timeless truths that underpin practical theology: listening in silence, lament, forgiveness, thoughtfulness and hospitality. The book is particularly strong in its treatment of lament and the use of the psalms. Although first published by Eerdmans in 2007, this book has not gone out of date, except in one respect. Where it might benefit from being updated is in its references to the issue of asylum seekers and our failure as a society to offer hospitality to those in need. Another strength of the book is the author's insistence on the need for the church to avoid being tempted to try and explain suffering and evil rather than responding 'to evil by faithfully engaging in the practices of love in the midst of evil'. Criticism notwithstanding, this book is thoroughly recommended. -- Marion Gray * The Reader, Winter edition *

John Swinton is a Scottish theologian. He is the Chair in Divinity and Religious Studies at the School of Divinity, History, and Philosophy, University of Aberdeen. He is the author of 'Becoming Friends of Time' and 'Dementia: Living in the Memories of God' for which he won the 2016 Michael Ramsey Prize for theological writing.

1. the problem with the problem of evil: pastoral perspectives 9

2. The Problem with the Problem of Evil: From Philosophical to Practical Theodicy 30

3. Defining Evil 46

4. From Theodicy to Resistance: Developing the Practices of Redemption 69

5. Why Me, Lord . . . Why Me? The Practice of Lament as Resistance and Deliverance 90

6. Battling Monsters and Resurrecting Persons: Practicing Forgiveness in the Face of Radical Evil 130

7. Practicing Thoughtfulness: What Are People For? 179

8. Friendship, Strangeness, and Hospitable Communities 213

Conclusion: Practicing Faithfulness in the Face of Evil 244