scholarly journals Good grief: Lord of the Flies as a post-war rewriting of salvation history

Literator ◽  
2004 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-26 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Van Vuuren
Keyword(s):  
Problem Of Evil ◽  
Original Sin ◽  
Biblical Narrative ◽  
Salvation History ◽  
Biblical Narratives ◽  
The Problem Of Evil ◽  
Lord Of The Flies ◽  
Post War

Golding’s Lord of the Flies, first published in 1954, reflects a bleak sense of post-war pessimism. But with undue attention focused on its portrayal of original sin and the problem of evil, readings have often remained reductive. In this article it is argued that the novel’s symbolic narrative is polysemic and, when it is read as anagogic myth, may be seen to span Judaeo-Christian Heilsgeschichte or salvation history, rewriting its chapters of creation, Fall, the problem of evil, the failure of law, the hope of salvation, the mission of a messianic figure, and – in the clearest departure from the Biblical narrative – an ambiguous representation of his return. This study examines the novel’s often paradoxical symbolism using Frye’s phases of anagogic myth, with its poles of apocalyptic and demonic imagery. It traces the relation of symbols to their counterparts in Biblical narratives, drawn in particular from the symbolic writings of the origin and end of humanity, to elucidate Golding’s bleak but certainly not hopeless rewriting of the salvation story for a post-faith readership.

Sin and Evil

2021 ◽  
pp. 234-249
Author(s):  
David P. Barshinger
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Pastoral Ministry ◽  
Problem Of Evil ◽  
Original Sin ◽  
Christian Doctrine ◽  
The Bible ◽  
The Problem Of Evil ◽  
In Christ

This chapter describes Jonathan Edwards’s doctrine of sin and evil. It emphasizes the role of the Bible as foundational to his theology while also highlighting his desire to defend the reasonableness of traditional Christian doctrine in light of eighteenth-century intellectual challenges. The chapter explores Edwards’s theodicy in response to the problem of evil—how he sought to absolve God of the charge that he is the author of evil. It describes Edwards’s doctrine of original sin and human depravity, which he explained by defending the universality of sin and the transmission of Adam’s sin to his posterity and in which he developed an innovative metaphysic using occasionalism and continuous creationism. As a pastor, Edwards preached on sin to warn people of punishment, call them to repentance, and emphasize redemption in Christ. The chapter recommends giving greater attention to Edwards’s sermons and pastoral ministry in understanding his view of sin and evil.

Essays in Analytic Theology

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael C. Rea
Keyword(s):  
Problem Of Evil ◽  
Human Condition ◽  
Original Sin ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Divine Hiddenness ◽  
The Problem Of Evil ◽  
The Face ◽  
Part Deal ◽  
The Human Condition

This book is the second of two volumes collecting together the most substantial work in analytic theology that I have done between 2003 and 2018. The first volume contains essays focused, broadly speaking, on the nature of God; this second volume contains essays focused more on doctrines about humanity, the human condition, and how human beings relate to God. The essays in the first part deal with the doctrines of the incarnation, original sin, and atonement; the essays in the second part discuss the problem of evil, the problem of divine hiddenness, and a theological problem that arises in connection with the idea God not only tolerates but validates a response of angry protest in the face of these problems.

The Question of Evil in Post-War British Fiction

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Eaglestone
Keyword(s):  
Fundamental Problem ◽  
Problem Of Evil ◽  
Fundamental Question ◽  
Historical Reality ◽  
Muriel Spark ◽  
The Holocaust ◽  
William Golding ◽  
British Fiction ◽  
The Problem Of Evil ◽  
Post War

This chapter argues that Iris Murdoch’s view that the fiction of the 1950s and early 1960s could not address evil is narrow and hence incorrect. Several important writers, such as William Golding, Muriel Spark, J. R. R. Tolkien, were precisely imagining evil in a range of different ways. Indeed, it was exactly as a response to the question of evil that they chose different forms (fantasy, fable, allegory). Importantly, for each of these writers, evil was not simply an abstract thing: the abstract was bound ineluctably into the historical reality of the Holocaust. It also raises the issue of the problem of evil as the fundamental question of post-war Europe. Each of these writers thus addressed this fundamental problem in different ways.

scholarly journals "Finding Ourselves After Darwin: Conversations on the Image of God, Original Sin, and the Problem of Evil" edited by Stanley P. Rosenberg et al.

2020 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 74-76
Author(s):  
Carol King
Keyword(s):  
Problem Of Evil ◽  
Image Of God ◽  
Original Sin ◽  
Grand Rapids ◽  
The Problem Of Evil ◽  
The Image Of God

Review of Stanley P. Rosenberg, Michael Burdett, Michael Lloyd and Benno van den Toren, eds., Finding Ourselves After Darwin: Conversations on the Image of God, Original Sin, and the Problem of Evil (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Academic, 2018), pp. vii + 375, ISBN 978-0801098246. £19.99

scholarly journals THE PRIEST, THE PSYCHIATRIST AND THE PROBLEM OF EVIL

2019 ◽  
pp. 101-140
Keyword(s):  
Depth Psychology ◽  
Final Section ◽  
Problem Of Evil ◽  
Carl Jung ◽  
Christian Theology ◽  
Historical Reconstruction ◽  
Book Of Job ◽  
The Problem Of Evil ◽  
Ultimate Question ◽  
Post War

This paper clusters around the problem of evil within the framework of depth psychology. The first part briefly introduces the narrative of the Book of Job as an example to contextualise how the ultimate question of God’s relation to evil remained unanswered and was left open-ended in Christian theology. The second part offers a historical reconstruction of the unresolved polemic over the nature of evil between Carl Jung and the English Dominican scholar and theologian Victor White (1902-1960). It explores their different speculations and formulations concerning evil and its psychological implications, until their final fall-out following White’s harshly critical review of Jung’s most controversial work on religion, Answer to Job. The final section of this paper introduces further reflections on a challenging theme that is no less resonant and relevant in today’s world of terrorism in the name of religion than it was in a post-war Europe struggling to recover from totalitarianism and genocide.

scholarly journals Dragon Myths and Biblical Theology

2019 ◽  
Vol 80 (1) ◽  
pp. 37-56
Author(s):  
Robert D. Miller
Keyword(s):  
Old Testament ◽  
Problem Of Evil ◽  
Biblical Theology ◽  
Test Case ◽  
Theological Interpretation ◽  
Salvation History ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Historical Accuracy ◽  
The Problem Of Evil

A recurrent myth in the Bible about God “slaying a dragon,” primarily in the Old Testament, provides a test case for using the “study of Scripture as the soul of theology” without depending on historical accuracy or indeed on “salvation history” at all. Freeing us from the dangers of a resurgent focus on history in theological interpretation, this article shows how the dragon-slaying myth speaks powerfully to theodicy and the problem of evil.

scholarly journals Kants begreb om det radikale onde

2012 ◽  
Vol 75 (2) ◽  
pp. 103-123
Author(s):  
Jacob P.B. Mortensen
Keyword(s):  
Problem Of Evil ◽  
Original Sin ◽  
Radical Evil ◽  
The Problem Of Evil

The article is a reading of Book One in Kant’s Religion within the Limits of Reason Alone. The main focus is the concept of radical evil, which Kant posits as a philosophical analogue to the Christian concept of Original Sin. The article unfolds the relations between the concepts that Kant uses to establish the concept of radical evil. The main point is that Kant ends up contradicting his own conceptual defi nition because he ascribes evil to the concept of freedom, which is fundamentally good. The article thus follows a peripheral and marginalized trajectory within Kantian scholarship by proposing a Kant who is inconsistent and paradoxical. Even though this ‘contradictory Kant’ ends up not explaining what he sets out to explain, the article appreciates his work for his effort to fi nd a foothold in the question concerning the problem of evil.

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