Human Existence and Theodicy
A Comparison of Jesus and Albert Camus
Will be published approx. on 1. December 1992
Book
Paperback/Softback
X, 201 pages
978-0-8204-1853-7 (ISBN)
Description
This fascinating book critically utilizes scholarly material to explore how Jesus and Albert Camus responded to the existential realities of evil. An interdisciplinary work, it charts a course through complex issues and vast amounts of scholarly literature employing a cogent and eloquent prose style. By way of literary analysis, it demonstrates that the immediate social contexts, characterized by rapid social change and symbolic disintegration, are evidenced in both the forms and content of Jesus' parables and Camus' writings. This analysis leads to the insight that Jesus and Camus rejected the prevailing moralistic and religious ways of explaining evil in favor of an «artistic» response to this existential problem.
More details
Person
The Author: Robert C. Sutton is an adjunct professor of religion and philosophy at Montclair State College, Montclair, New Jersey. He earned his B.A. from Virginia Wesleyan College, the M.Div. from Drew Theological Seminary, and his M.Phil. and Ph.D. from Drew Graduate School. He has previously published on the subject of evil and has edited works dealing with the archaeology of the Hellenistic period in Palestine.
Content
Contents: Details «Evil as an Existential Reality». Jesus and Camus offer artistic responses in «Birth and Death of Language.» This is contrasted with other responses, Plato, Gnosticism, John Hick. How to escape the denial of finitude, «To Be or Not to Be».