Skip to content
Home/ Divine Evil?: The Moral Character of the God of Abraham
Divine Evil?: The Moral Character of the God of Abraham

Divine Evil?: The Moral Character of the God of Abraham

by Bergmann, Michael
No customer reviews yet ISBN 9780199671854

Adherents of the Abrahamic religions have traditionally held that God is morally perfect and unconditionally deserving of devotion, obedience, love, and worship. The Jewish, Christian, and Islamic scriptures tell us that God is compassionate, merciful, and just. As is well-known, however, these same scriptures contain passages that portray God as wrathful, severely punitive, and jealous. Critics furthermore argue that the God of these scriptures commends bigotry, misogyny, and homophobia, condones slavery, and demands the adoption of unjust laws-for example, laws that mandate the death penalty for adultery and rebellion against parents, and laws institutionalizing in various ways the diverse kinds of bigotry and oppression just mentioned. In recent days, these sorts of criticisms of the Hebrew Bible have been raised in new and forceful ways by philosophers, scientists, social commentators, and others.

This volume brings together eleven original essays representing the views of both critics and defenders of the character of God as portrayed in these texts. Authors represent the disciplines of philosophy, religion, and Biblical studies. Each essay is accompanied by comments from another author who takes a critical approach to the thesis defended in that essay, along with replies by the essay's author.

About the author

Product details

Pub dateFeb 7, 2013
ISBN-100199671850
ISBN-139780199671854
LanguageEnglish
Last updated 2026-03-20 10:08
$85.89
In stock — ships in 24 hours with free tracking
Delivery by Monday, September 14, 2026
Qty
Sign in to Add to Saved list
Free delivery on orders over $35.
15-day returns. Any reason.
Secure checkout. We never store card details.

Readers who bought this also bought

More from Religious
See all
Theism and Atheism: Opposing Arguments in Philosophy
<p><em>Theism and Atheism: Opposing Arguments in Philosophy</em> is a peer-reviewed, academic volume that has two separate editors in chief, with their respective editorial boards. The atheism side is led by Graham Oppy (Australian philosopher, Monash University). The theism side is led by Joseph Koterski, S.J. (American philosopher, Fordham University) and includes Christian, Jewish, and Muslim philosophers. <p/><br>The two editorial boards worked together to identify twenty key topics in philosophical debates regarding arguments for and against the existence of God (e.g., Religious Experience, Miracles, Our Universe, Human Beings, Science, Religious Diversity, etc.). The single volume is composed of forty total chapters. The format is such that an author taking the side of theism composes a chapter on a topic, followed by an atheism author covering the same topic (e.g., Miracles: Theism followed by Miracles: Atheism).<br> <p/>The title presents complex philosophical counter perspectives in a lucid manner. It grapples with issues that have occupied philosophers for more than two millennia. These include the sufficiency/insufficiency of an empirical explanation for the existence of the universe&#x3b; the capacity/incapacity of the empirical sciences to draw conclusions about a possible infinite being&#x3b; the validity/invalidity of philosophical arguments regarding the existence of an infinite being&#x3b; various notions of infinity&#x3b; the problem of evil, and so on. </p>
$383.62
Early Christian Doctrine: Revised Edition (Revised)
Kelly, J N D
$27.73
Run to the Mountain: The Story of a Vocationthe Journal of Thomas Merton, Volume 1: 1939-1941
Merton, Thomas
$13.60
Poetry, Language, Thought
Heidegger, Martin
$13.47
Meister Eckhart: The Essential Writings
Eckhart, Meister
$18.77
Dogmatics in Outline
Barth, Karl
$21.14