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God, Medicine, and Suffering Paperback – December 12, 1994

by Stanley Hauerwas (Author)
4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 33 ratings
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Why does a good and all-powerful God allow us to experience pain and suffering? According to Stanley Hauerwas, asking this question is a theological mistake. Drawing heavily on stories of ill and dying children to illustrate and clarify his discussion of theological-philosophical issues, Hauerwas explores why we so fervently seek explanations for suffering and evil, and he shows how modern medicine has become a god to which we look (in vain) for deliverance from the evils of disease and mortality.
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  1. Print length
    168 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Wm. B. Eerdmans-Lightning Source
  4. Publication date
    December 12, 1994
  5. Dimensions
    5.5 x 0.4 x 8.5 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    0802808964
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0802808967
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Stanley Hauerwas is Gilbert T. Rowe Professor Emeritus of Divinity and Law at Duke University. Among his many books are Resident Aliens, A Community of Character, Living Gently in a Violent World, and A Cross-Shattered Church.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Wm. B. Eerdmans-Lightning Source; Later Printing Used edition (December 12, 1994)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 168 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0802808964
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0802808967
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 8 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 0.4 x 8.5 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 33 ratings

About the author

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Stanley Hauerwas

Stanley Hauerwas

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Stanley Hauerwas is the Gilbert T. Rowe Professor Emeritus of Divinity and Law at the Divinity School at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. He has written a voluminous number of articles, authored and edited many books, and has been the subject of other theologians' writing and interest. He has been a board member of the Society of Christian Ethics, Associate Editor of a number of Christian journals and periodicals, and a frequent lecturer at campuses across the country.

Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5 stars
4.4 out of 5
33 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

H.L.C.
5.0 out of 5 stars A Must Read, especially for counseling
Reviewed in the United States on June 29, 2014
Verified Purchase
Sure, this book is hard to read due to dying children, etc. However, this book is now one of my favorite books ever because of the powerful effect it has on how I think about suffering. I recommend this book for anyone who considers counseling or even meets suffering in some capacity.
3 people found this helpful
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G. Wolff
5.0 out of 5 stars Great book
Reviewed in the United States on August 1, 2013
Verified Purchase
I got this book as a companion book for a class I was taking in Seminary. Examines suffering and the role it has in the believer's life. I don't necessarily agree with every conclusion made in this book, but a good study on the problems of suffering in the Christian's life.
3 people found this helpful
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MSN
3.0 out of 5 stars Difficult to Rate
Reviewed in the United States on March 27, 2015
Verified Purchase
If a reader is seeking an explanation for one of life's most challenging questions, why does God allow innocent children to die from terrible diseases?, you may or may not find the answer you are seeking. However, you will find yourself riding a tidal wave of emotion as you read this book. Sometimes the author is difficult to follow and sometimes he is crystal clear. It will challenge your thinking and your theology.
3 people found this helpful
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H. Worthington
5.0 out of 5 stars Thanks for a smooth transaction
Reviewed in the United States on July 31, 2008
Verified Purchase
The book received was exactly as described. It was delivered on time and in great shape.
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Annie Gilchrist
4.0 out of 5 stars Four Stars
Reviewed in the United States on March 19, 2018
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Good source of information.
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R. K. Venugopal
5.0 out of 5 stars A thorough analysis of a complex subject
Reviewed in the United States on April 22, 2007
This is a really well thought out book. Hauerwas explores suffering in its most outrageous form : child suffering. For most of life human beings can explain away suffering as a product of this or that. Child suffering is different as it provokes a different reaction in us. Instead of wanting to accept it as a course of life we become shocked and disgusted with such suffering. Maybe it has to do with the innocence of a child.. the feeling that life has been cut short. Hauerwas explores why child suffering bothers us as humans and what we should do about the place of medical treatment. I've really appreciated his exploration of modernity's (false) promises about the power of medicine. Pills, medical therapy, and other forms of medical treatment can only do so much. I saw it too often in the pharmacy I work in - people buying into the fake promises that medicine can offer a perfect life. Even though I really like this book, I am not sure if I agree with Hauerwas's conclusion about the answer or meaning in such suffering. He seems to see no fruit in trying to justify or give suffering meaning by affirming God's sovereignty. Rather he says the question of God's interaction with our suffering (especially child suffering) is poor and can only lead to problems of theodicy. Despite my uneasiness with such a response, I am glad I picked up this book.

"The psalms of lament do not simply reflect our experience; they are meant to form our experience of despair. They are meant to name the silences that our suffering has created. They bring us into communion with God and with one another, communion that makes it possible to acknowledge our pain and suffering, to rage that we see no point to it, and yet our very acknowledgement of that fact makes us a people capable of living life faithfully. We are able to do so because we know that the God who has made our life possible is not a God merely of goodness and power, but the God whom we find manifested in the calling of Israel and the life, cross, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. The God who calls us to service through worship is not a God who insures that our lives will not be disturbed; indeed, if we are faithful, we had better expect to experience a great deal of unrest. This may not be the God we want, but at least it is a God whose very complexity is so fascinating that our attention is captivated by the wonder of the life God has given us - a life that inlcudes pain and suffering that seem to have no point."

- Stanley Hauerwas on why Christians should include the pslams of lament into their theology.
16 people found this helpful
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skypilot
4.0 out of 5 stars Four Stars
Reviewed in the United States on December 13, 2014
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Just what I needed thanks
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Charlotte Chung
4.0 out of 5 stars An encouraging book that enables us to wrestle with the reality of suffering
Reviewed in the United States on July 6, 2016
Chapter Summary
i. Chapter One: A Child’s Dying
• The fictional story of Don Wanderhope - who lost his brother, his first love, his wife and finally, his daughter
ii. Chapter Two: Theology, Theodicy and Medicine
• The real story of the Giesbrechts in their struggle in raising Jeremy and his autistic-like behavior and its complications
iii. Chapter Three: Medicine as Theodicy
• Medicine as an activity of service becomes distorted when we try to use it to eliminate the silence created by death. (Hauerwas 1994, xii)

Major Themes
i. Expose the worldview behind Theodicy
• He highlighted that the metaphysical and abstract investigations about evil or suffering are foreign in the biblical worldview.
• Theodicy occurred at the same time that modern atheism came into being.(Hauerwas 1994, 41)
• He noted that the Enlightenment’s worldview of human self-sufficiency and endless human possibilities do not have a place for the reality of illness and death. (Hauerwas 1994, 106)
ii. Emphasize the biblical worldview on Suffering
• “Suffering is a practical challenge requiring [a] communal response.”(Hauerwas 1994, 51, 85)
• Illness and death have a place in the biblical worldview in that they are temporary. More importantly, the biblical worldview’s fulcrum is the story of God and how every person can find his or her place in that story.
• Emphasis on meaningful death as more paramount to longer but mindless days
• Suffering does not have meaning until people find their stories in God’s story.
iii. Man and Medicine
• He spoke against using medicine as gaining our ability to control when and how we die for the sake of being able to control it.
iv. Against Sedating One’s Suffering
• “Against the throb of compassion rather than the breadth of consolation: the recognition of how long is the mourners’ bench upon we sit, arms linked in undeluded friendship.” (Hauerwas 1994, 29)

Relevance to Life and Ministry
• Operate with the biblical worldview as we approach suffering
• Grow in one’s compassion in response to suffering
• Caring to the ill as of equal importance to curing the illness
• In a child’s illness, in as much as a medical cure is pursued, meaningful presence is more important.
6 people found this helpful
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