Responding to Evil

by Joseph F Kelly PH.D.

Overview

In Responding to Evil Joseph Kelly treats evil as a force in our personal lives. He talks about the impact of September 11 on the American consciousness and how that brought the question of evil front and center. Professor Kelly then looks at what evil does to us and how previous generations have dealt with it. By focusing on the sins people commit rather than the questions psychologists tend to focus on, such as murder or theft, or on tragedies that occurred in Rwanda or during the Holocaust, Kelly makes the discussion of evil relevant to readers like us who are not really evil" but who face the problem of our own sinfulness every day.

In taking up the intellectual question of how God and evil can coexist Kelly relates the ideas in the book to real-life situations, especially of good and caring people. Finally, he shares how we can respond to evil and looks at how some modern Christians, often ordinary people, have done so.

Chapters are *What Evil Does to Us, - *How Can God and Evil Co-Exist? - *Responses to Evil, - and *Some Final Thoughts. 

Joseph F. Kelly, PhD, chair of the department of religious studies at John Carroll University, is also active in religious education for the Diocese of Cleveland. Of his eight previous books, with Liturgical Press he has published The Problem of Evil in the Western Tradition and The World of the Early Christians.

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Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780814629666
Publisher:	Liturgical Press
Publication date:	11/01/2003
Pages:	81
Product dimensions:	6.06(w) x 9.04(h) x 0.25(d)

About the Author

Joseph F. Kelly, PhD, (1945-2023), was the chair of the department of theology and religious studies at John Carroll University and was active in adult religious education in the Greater Cleveland area. The World of the Early Christians (1997), The Problem of Evil in the Western Tradition (2002), and History and Heresy (2012) are among his nine previous books published by Liturgical Press.

Table of Contents

	Acknowledgments	ix
	Introduction	1
1.	What Evil Does to Us	5
2.	How Can God and Evil Coexist?	32
3.	Responses to Evil	59
	Some Final Thoughts	78
	Further Reading	80

Editorial Reviews

Joseph F. Kelly, Professor of Religious Studies at John Caroll University, has written a concise yet nuanced pastoral theological response to the problem of evil.
Homiletic


Kelly offers a salvific vision of how individuals can respond and indeed overcome the evil seen in the world today. Written in a simple, clear, personal style with reflection questions to more individualize the lessons, Kelly's book provides a much needed antidote to our almost overwhelming consciousness of evil in the world today.
Catholic Library World


The problem of evil touches everyone. Professor Kelly provides a careful introduction to the problem of evil for the general reader, drawing on the whole of Christian tradition. His is a message of hope telling that each of us, in our own ways, can address the evil we meet with positive acts of Christian love.
Phyllis Zagano, Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies, Hofstra University, Hempstead, New York


Every true theologian, we have come to understand, is a pastoral theologian. Joseph Kelly's narrative treatment of the problem of evil is clear, instructive, authoritative - and truly pastoral. This timely book both enlightens and encourages at a time when responding to evil is a paramount responsibility for us all.
Donald Cozzens, John Carroll University, Author, Sacred Silence and The Changing Face of the Priesthood


In this brief but compelling little book, Joseph Kelly . . . offers a thoughtful contemporary theodicy for young Christians.
America

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