Evil and the Justice of God

by N. T. Wright

Publisher:

SPCK

, 2006

Overview

This is a fascinating analysis and response to the fundamental questions that face any believer today. Sadly becoming daily more topical, this book explores all aspects of evil—our contemporary and theological understanding, and the ways in which evil presents itself in society today. Fully grounded in the Bible, Evil and the Justice of God is sparkling, erudite, provocative and particularly relevant in the wake of new global terror attacks.

Accounts of cruelty, death and terrorism hit us every day. The phrase ‘the axis of evil’ resonates in our world, and evil seems to seep into all aspects of life. We are forced to ask fundamental questions about God and the nature of evil, which demand a theological resolution that is mature, profound and never glib.

N. T. Wright explores these pivotal questions with a fresh and engaging approach, combining the virtues of detailed scholarship with an accessible style. He neither ducks the awkward, nor avoids the unpalatable, but instead offers a new, often surprising perspective in his search for a meaningful response to the problem of evil.

Praise for the Print Edition

Wright puts evil in perspective by giving us a powerfully persuasive vision of the 'new heavens and new earth,' the ultimate reality in which we can already begin to participate. This is a book that every thoughtful Christian should read.

—John Wilson, editor, Books & Culture

Evil and the Justice of God unravels any skeptic's doubt that a loving God can exist in a world so full of suffering. Tom Wright offers a breathtaking glimpse into the mind and purposes of God. . . and a hope-filled plan for how we can reconcile a broken world with the kingdom to come.

—Peggy Wehmeyer, host, World Vision Report

Product Details

• Title: Evil and the Justice of God
• Author: N. T. Wright
• Publisher: SPCK
• Publication Date: 2006
• Pages: 128

About N. T. Wright

Nicholas Tom Wright, commonly known as N. T. Wright or Tom Wright, is Professor of New Testament and Early Christianity at St. Andrews University. Previously, he was the bishop of Durham. He has researched, taught, and lectured on the New Testament at McGill, Oxford, and Cambridge Universities, and has been named by Christianity Today a top theologian. He is best known for his scholarly contributions to the historical study of Jesus and the New Perspective on Paul. His work interacts with the positions of James Dunn, E. P. Sanders, Marcus Borg, and Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury. Wright has written and lectured extensively around the world, authoring more than forty books and numerous articles in scholarly journals and popular periodicals. He is best known for his Christian Origins and the Question of God Series, of which three of the anticipated six volumes are finished.

Sample Pages from the Print Edition

Contents

Top Highlights

“The Old Testament oscillates to and fro between three things: evil seen as idolatry and consequent dehumanization; evil as what wicked people do, not least what they do to the righteous; and evil as the work of the ‘satan’ (a Hebrew word meaning ‘accuser’).” (Page 23)

“What the Old Testament does is to talk quite a lot, not about what God says about evil, but about what God can do, is doing and will do about it.” (Page 23)

“Dietrich Bonhoeffer declared that the primal sin of humanity consisted in putting the knowledge of good and evil before the knowledge of God.” (Page 33)

“The Old Testament isn’t written in order simply to ‘tell us about God’ in the abstract. It isn’t designed primarily to provide information, to satisfy the enquiring mind. It’s written to tell the story of what God has done, is doing and will do about evil.” (Pages 23–24)

“Postmodernism, in recognizing that we are all deeply flawed, avoids any return to a classic doctrine of Original Sin by claiming that humans have no fixed ‘identity’ and hence no fixed responsibility. You can’t escape evil, within postmodernity; but you can’t find anybody to take the blame, either.” (Page 14)

Product Details

• Title: Evil and the Justice of God
• Author: N. T. Wright
• Publisher: SPCK
• Print Publication Date: 2006
• Logos Release Date: 2011
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
• Subjects: Good and evil; Christianity and justice; Redemption › Christianity
• ISBNs: 9780281057887, 0281057885
• Resource ID: LLS:EVILANDJUSTICE
• Resource Type: Monograph
• Metadata Last Updated: 2022-09-29T23:44:49Z

About N. T. Wright

Nicholas Thomas “Tom” Wright (1948–) is a New Testament scholar, Pauline theologian, and Anglican bishop and currently Research Professor Emeritus of New Testament and Early Christianity at St. Mary's College in the University of St Andrews and Senior Research Fellow at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford. Christianity Today named him one of today's top theologians. 

Wright was born in Morpeth, Northumberland, and recounts an awareness of God's presence from a young age—and that relationship with God ever since is reflected in his life and work. He's a prolific author; one of his most popular books, Surprised by Hope, frames the resurrection of the dead as the appropriate hope for all believers rather than an overemphasis on just "going to heaven when you die." He's among the leading theologians in the New Perspective on Paul debate. Wright has several honorary doctoral degrees, and in 2014, the British Academy awarded him the Burkitt Medal "in recognition of special service to biblical studies." In 2015, he was made a fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.

Wright served as chaplain at Cambridge from 1978 to 1981, then as assistant professor of New Testament language and literature at McGill University in Montreal. Before becoming a chaplain, tutor, lecturer, and fellow at Oxford in 1986, Wright served as dean of Lichfield Cathedral, canon theologian of Westminster Abbey, and the bishop of Durham from 2003–10. In addition to the entire New Testament for Everyone Series, some of N. T. Wright's books include The New Testament in Its World: An Introduction to the History, Literature, and Theology of the First Christians, Who Was Jesus, The New Testament and the People of God, God and the Pandemic, Evil and the Justice of God, Surprised by Hope, and Simply Christian. He coauthored Jesus the Final Days with Craig A. Evans.