Evil and Creation

"My help comes from the Lord, maker of heaven and earth."

Evil is an intruder upon a world created by God and declared good. Scripture emphasizes this: laments are regularly juxtaposed with declarations of God as creator. But evil is not merely a problem for the doctrine of creation. Rather, the doctrine of creation provides a hopeful response to evil.

In Evil and Creation, David J. Luy, Matthew Levering, and George Kalantzis collect essays investigating how the doctrine of creation relates to moral and physical evil. Essayists pursue philosophical and theological analyses of evil rather than neatly solving the problem of evil itself. Including contributions from Constantine Campbell, Paul Blowers, and Paul Gavrilyuk, this volume draws upon biblical and patristic voices to produce constructive theology, considering topics ranging from vanity in Ecclesiastes and its patristic interpreters to animal suffering.

Readers will gain a broader appreciation of evil and how to faithfully respond to it as well as a renewed hope in God as creator and judge.

David J. Luy (PhD, Marquette University) is associate professor of biblical and systematic theology at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He is the author of Dominus Mortis: Martin Luther on the Incorruptibility of Christ.

Matthew Levering (PhD, Boston College) is James N. and Mary D. Perry Jr. Chair of Theology at Mundelein Seminary. He is the author of numerous books, including Participatory Biblical Exegesis, Engaging the Doctrine of Creation, and Dying and the Virtues.

George Kalantzis (PhD, Northwestern University)is professor of theology at Wheaton College and the director of The Wheaton Center for Early Christian Studies. He is the author of Caesar and the Lamb: Early Christian Attitudes on War and Military Science.