Suffering and Hope: Biblical Vision and the Human Predicament

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 lifes greatest mysteries — the presence of suffering in Gods world. Now an established classic in the discussion of the problem of evil Suffering and Hope plumbs the Old Testaments response to earthly pain as well as Pauls own dealings with redemptive suffering. Beker seeks to understand how the Bibles 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 Bekers personal transparency and by his biblical vision of hopeful suffering — the apocalyptic trust in Gods eventual victory over the power of death that poisons his creation.