God, Evil and the Limits of Theology
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Karen Kilby explores the doctrine of the Trinity and issues of evil, suffering and sin. She offers a critique of the lack of respect for mystery found in the most popular Trinitarian thinking of our time. Kilby gives an apophatic reading of Aquinas on the Trinity and offers a distinct next step in the sequence on the Trinity – the appeal of social doctrines of the Trinity lies principally in their ecclesial and political relevance. She engages with Miroslav Volf’s famous ‘The Trinity is our social program’ essay and addresses the question of what an alternative politics of an apophatic theology of the Trinity might look like.
The essays explore the question of theodicy and argue that evil poses a question to Christians and Christian’s theology which can neither be answered nor dismissed. Kilby argues that Christians must live with this mystery, this lack of resolution, rather than trying to diminish the gravity of evil, or allowing evil to dictate their conception of God’s goodness or power. By offering a critical reading of Hans Urs von Balthasar and Julian of Norwich she explores the question of whether Christianity can avoid giving a positive valuation to suffering, and concludes the two represent two different strands within the Christian tradition in relation to thought on suffering.
1. Introduction
2. Perichoresis and Projection: Problems with Social Doctrines of the Trinity
3. Aquinas, the Trinity, and the Limits of Understanding
4. Is an Apophatic Trinitarianism Possible?
5. The Trinity and Politics: An Apophatic Approach
6. The Status of the Concept: A Reflection on John Zizioulas’ Being as Communion
7. Evil and the Limits of Theology
8. Sin, Evil, and the Problem of Intelligibility
9. Grace and Paradox
10. Christian Theology, Anti-Liberalism and Modern Jewish Thought
11. Julian of Norwich, Hans Urs von Balthasar, and the Status of Suffering in Christian Theology
12. Beauty and Mystery in Mathematics and Theology
Bibliography
Index