Suffering Religion »

These six essays by contemporary theologians analyze the complex relationship between religion and suffering. Themes covered include: philosophy's failure to treat suffering seriously; Martin Buber's celebrated interpretations of scriptural suffering; suffering in Kristevan psychoanalysis; the practice of ritualistic home-birth; and God's primal suffering in the Kabbalistic tradition.

Introduction, Robert Gibbs and Elliot R. Wolfson

1. Unjustifiable Suffering, Robert Gibbs
2. Re-reading Job as Textual Theodicy, Steven Kepnes
3. Suffering in Theory, Cleo McNelly Kearnes
4. The Scandal of Pain in Childbirth, Pamela E. Klassen
5. Divine Suffering and the Hermeneutics of Reading: Philosophical Reflections on Lurianic Mythology, Elliot R. Wolfson
6. Suffering and Incarnation, Graham Ward

Epilogue: Theology and Religious Studies