Suffering and Hope

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This is a print on demand book and is therefore non- returnable. This compelling study by J. Christian Beker provides a moving, triumphant answer to one of life's greatest mysteries — the presence of suffering in God's world. Now an established classic in the discussion of the problem of evil, Suffering and Hope plumbs the Old Testament's response to earthly pain as well as Paul's own dealings with "redemptive suffering." Beker seeks to understand how the Bible's view of suffering relates to our present experience of suffering and to the Christian hope for the future of creation. His concern is with the quality and character of both suffering and hope in a world where the question of suffering is inescapable. This powerful new edition features a foreword by Ben C. Ollenburger that describes the story behind the book — the dehumanizing conditions Beker endured as a slave laborer during the Nazi occupation of The Netherlands and the ways in which they helped shape the particular poignancy of his view of suffering. Readers will be moved both by Beker's personal transparency and by his biblical vision of "hopeful suffering" — the apocalyptic trust in God's eventual victory over the power of death that poisons his creation. Fred B. Craddock —Emory University
"Beker has turned to the Scriptures with his questions not simply because that is his area of expertise, but because the Scriptures reflect the same tensions which the author experiences: between suffering and hope, between trust in a good Creator and the fact of immense pain everywhere. As does the Bible, Beker stands squarely before God when thinking about both light and darkness, both good and evil. And on every page the author appeals to that desire in all of us to avoid both cynicism and na�ve credulity." J. Christiaan Beker (1924-1999) was professor of biblical theology at Princeton Theological Seminary from 1966 to 1995. His other books include Paul the Apostle and The Triumph of God.

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