Where Is God?: Earthquake, Terrorism, Barbarity, and Hope

by Jon Sobrino, Margaret Wilde

Overview

Jon Sobrino's latest book takes its starting point from tragedy and violence: a devastating earthquake in El Salvador, the terrorist attacks of September 11, the subsequent bombing of Afghanistan, and the war in Iraq. The topic of suffering and death traditionally raised questions about the nature and existence of God. But for Sobrino the primary question is addressed to ourselves: Who are we human beings? What does it mean to be human in a world of inequality, injustice, and barbarism? In examining the cruelty of history from the standpoint of the victims, Sobrino discerns a challenge not just to find meaning, but to answer a call to personal conversion, structural change, compassion, and solidarity.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781570755668
Publisher:	Orbis Books
Publication date:	09/01/2004
Pages:	194
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.45(d)

Table of Contents

	Prologue to the English Edition: The Empire and God	vii
	The Empire	viii
	God	xiv
	The Empire's Clay Feet and the Power of the Cross	xix
	A Closing Word	xx
	Introduction	xxiii
	Forgetting and Manipulating Tragedies	xxiii
	Who We Human Beings Are, Who God Is, What Brings Salvation	xxvi
	A Word from El Salvador	xxxiii
1	First Reflections after the Earthquake	1
	The Tragedy of the Poor	2
	The Injustice That Shapes Our World	3
	The Saintliness of Living	5
	The Primordial Demand: To Be Affected by Tragedy	7
	Where Is God in the Earthquake	9
	Is Hope Dying in El Salvador	10
2	The Earthquake Seen from the Christian Perspective	12
	The Battle of Definitions: What Is an Earthquake?	13
	The Historical Element of the Christian View	15
	The Transcendent Element of the Christian View	23
3	Being Honest toward Reality	29
	Deficit in the "Will to Truth"	30
	The Lie and the Truth in the Christian Tradition	37
4	The Crucified People	49
	The Sinfulness of Reality	49
	Iniquitous Poverty: The Destruction of "Home"	53
	Iniquitous Inequality: Comparative Harm	59
	The Christian Tradition: Poverty, Inequality, and Injustice	62
	The Unconcealable Sin	67
5	Primordial Saintliness	71
	Primordial Saintliness and Primordial martyrdom	71
	Primordial Saintliness and Solidarity: "Supporting One Another"	89
	Primary Saintliness and the Civilization of Poverty	98
	Appendix on "Countercultural Goodness"	102
6	Terrorism and Barbarity: New York and Afghanistan	106
	The Ultimacy of the Human: Suffering and Compassion	109
	The Will to Truth: The Greater Truth	112
	The Utopia of Reconciliation: Brotherhood Between Manhattan and El Salvador	119
7	Where Is God and What Is God Doing in the Tragedies?	124
	Religious Fanaticism and the God of Life	126
	Theodicy and the Crucified God	137
	Epilogue: Redemption and Utopia	147
	Redemption: "What Is Not Assumed, Is Not Saved"	147
	Utopia: "To Make Life Possible"	150
	Index	153