
Grains of Wheat
Suffering and Biblical Narratives
Eleonore Stump(Author)
Oxford University Press
Published on 4. April 2025
Book
Hardback
448 pages
978-0-19-287119-0 (ISBN)
Description
There is a kind of knowledge that is non-propositional; one variety of it can be acquired in second-person experience of another person, but it can also be transmitted through narratives. This narratively mediated kind of knowledge can be significant for philosophical and theological reflection. Biblical narratives have prompted detailed reflection for so many centuries because they offer profound insights into the nature of the human condition and human flourishing. This book brings together detailed examinations of narratives in the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament to yield one large, emergent story, which has something to teach that can be missed when the stories are taken in isolation from one another. These are the stories of Job, Samson, Abraham, Mary of Bethany, the temptations of Christ, the passion of Christ, and the story from the book of Ecclesiastes. Taken together, these narratives depict a possible world in which there is a good for suffering human beings that outweighs their suffering and that could not be gotten without the suffering, not even in a world without the Fall. On this emergent larger story, human suffering is defeated, and peace and joy in human life are possible.
Reviews / Votes
For anyone desiring a strikingly insightful and penetrating exploration into the various biblical narratives that involve suffering of one kind or another, this is one book that ought to be turned to as Stump weaves together a telling of the stories in conversation with authors as diverse as John Milton, Soren Kierkegaard, and Raymond E. Brown. ...Highly recommended. * Thomas Haviland-Pabst, Calvin Theological Journal *More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Oxford
United Kingdom
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Dimensions
Height: 164 mm
Width: 241 mm
Thickness: 34 mm
Weight
828 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-19-287119-0 (9780192871190)
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Schweitzer Classification
Person
Eleonore Stump is the Robert J. Henle Professor of Philosophy at Saint Louis University. She has published extensively in philosophy of religion, contemporary metaphysics, and medieval philosophy. Her books include Aquinas (2003), Wandering in Darkness: Narrative and the Problem of Suffering (2010), Atonement (2018), and The Image of God. The Problem of Evil and the Problem of Mourning (2022). She has given the Gifford Lectures (Aberdeen, 2003), the Wilde lectures (Oxford, 2006), the Stewart lectures (Princeton, 2009), and the Stanton lectures (Cambridge, 2018). She is past president of the American Philosophical Association, Central Division; and she is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Author
Robert J. Henle, SJ, Professor of PhilosophyRobert J. Henle, SJ, Professor of Philosophy, Saint Louis University
Content
Introduction 1: The Story of Job: Suffering and the Second-Personal 2: The Story of Samson: Self-Destroying Evil 3: The Story of Abraham: The Desires of the Heart 4: The Story of Mary of Bethany: Heartbrokenness and Shame 5: The Temptations of Christ 6: The Love of God and Its Story 7: Suffering and Flourishing: Ecclesiastes 8: A Final Reflection: The Mirror of Evil