We use cookies to make your experience better. To comply with the new e-Privacy directive, we need to ask for your consent to set the cookies. Learn more.
It appears you don't have the ability to view PDFs in this browser.
Click here to download the sample directly.
Publication Date: 20 Oct 2016 |
---|
Publisher: SPCK Publishing |
Page Count: 240 |
Author: Richard Harries |
ISBN-13: 9780281076932, 9780281076949, 9780281076956 |
The Beauty and the Horror
Summary of The Beauty and the Horror
For anyone who is fascinated by the phenomenon of religion, this is a deeply interesting book.
In a world so obviously imperfect and bearing no obvious hallmarks of purpose, the challenges facing Christianity are severe. Richard Harries is one of those who realise that and takes the challenges seriously. Those of us who are not in the end persuaded by his Christian defence can nonetheless appreciate the sensitivity and intelligence with which it is mounted. It is the best case that could be made.
Mingling intellectual rigour with spiritual wisdom, Harries helps his readers to grasp the relevance of the insights at the core of the Christian faith.
With all his characteristic clarity of thought, Richard Harries probes how we can find God in suffering and horror as well as beauty. . . The result is a profound statement of what it means to have faith in the living tradition of Christianity, guided by hope and love.’
The Beauty and the Horror is the most compelling exploration of suffering in the world that I have ever read. . . Written with grace and clarity, this is a book of rare power – such that, once you have finished it, you know you have been changed.
A heartening book, confronting the hardest questions with wide knowledge and deep wisdom.
Although we can all give meaning to our lives by trying to live well, is there some given meaning to be discovered?
Science cannot answer this question, and philosophical arguments leave the issue open. The monotheistic religions claim that the meaning has been revealed to us, and Christians see this is above all in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.
Described by Rowan Williams as ‘that rarity, a Christian public intellectual’, Richard Harries considers the Christian claim in the context of an in-depth discussion of the nature of evil and how this is to be reconciled with a just and loving God. Drawing on a wide range of modern literature, he argues that belief in the resurrection and hope in the face of death is fundamental to faith, and suggests that while there is no final intellectual answer to the problem of evil, we must all, believer and nonbeliever alike, protest against the world and seek to change it, rather than accept it as it is.