| Translator's preface | 7 |
| Introduction | 9 |
| Evil: the reality behind the word | 10 |
| The three questions about evil | 12 |
| The three solutions of human reason | 13 |
| The proposed shape of our study | 17 |
1 | The solution by universal order | 19 |
| The best of all possible worlds | 20 |
| Evil as the waste product of evolution | 22 |
| Evil, the 'bite of non-being' | 26 |
| Evaluation | 31 |
2 | The solution by autonomous freedom | 36 |
| 'Meonic' freedom: Nikolai Berdyaev | 37 |
| Hardly God at all: Wilfred Monod | 39 |
| Process theology | 41 |
| The powerless God in our midst: Dietrich Bonhoeffer | 42 |
| The ethical vision: Immanuel Kant | 44 |
| The dizzying anxiety of freedom: Soren Kierkegaard | 46 |
| God's withdrawal | 48 |
| The constraints of soul-making: John Hick | 51 |
| Evaluation | 55 |
3 | The solution by dialectical reasoning | 65 |
| The dialectics of the abyss: Jakob Boehme | 66 |
| Non-being overcome: Paul Tillich | 67 |
| The dialectics of the cross: Hegel | 70 |
| The cross within God: Jurgen Moltmann | 72 |
| The dialectics of grace: Karl Barth | 76 |
| Evaluation | 80 |
4 | Scripture on evil, principally its origin | 84 |
| The evil reality of evil | 85 |
| The universal sovereignty of the Lord | 90 |
| The unadulterated goodness of God and his work | 96 |
| The thorn in reason's flesh | 100 |
| Inscrutability, the cross, hope | 102 |
5 | Evil and the kingdom | 105 |
| Evil abolished in the kingdom | 105 |
| The kingdom that has come in Jesus Christ | 108 |
| The persistence and growth of evil | 109 |
| An unforeseen postponement? | 111 |
| The 'dispensationalist' division of history | 111 |
| The liberal school of Albert Schweitzer | 113 |
| The unfolding of the ages | 119 |
| The virulent counter-attack | 122 |
| The necessity of faith | 125 |
| The way of the kingdom | 127 |
| Conclusion | 128 |
| Inscrutability | 128 |
| Light in the darkness | 130 |
| Evil conquered as evil | 131 |
| Notes | 134 |