The Beauty And The Horror

Description

Life is at once wonderful and appalling, beautiful and horrific. Although we can all invest our lives with meaning by trying to live well, is there a given meaning to be discovered? Science cannot answer this question, and philosophical arguments leave the issue open. The monotheistic religions claim that the meaning has been revealed to us, and Christians see this above all in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. Described by Rowan Williams as ‘that rarity, a Christian public intellectual’, Richard Harries considers the Christian claim in the context of an in-depth discussion on the nature of evil and how this is to be reconciled with a just and loving God. Drawing on a wide range of modern literature, he argues that belief in the resurrection and hope in the face of death is fundamental to faith. In addition, he suggests that while there is no final intellectual answer to the problem of evil, we must all, believer and non-believer alike, protest against wickedness and seek to change the world, rather than accept it as it is.