No one will deny that we live in a world where evil exists. But how are we to come to grips with human atrocity and its diabolical intensity? Martin Beck Matustik considers evil to be even more radically evil than previously thought and to have become all too familiar in everyday life. While we can name various moral wrongs and specific cruelties, Matustik maintains that radical evil understood as a religious phenomenon requires a religious response where the language of hope, forgiveness, redemption, and love can take us beyond unspeakable harm and irreparable violence. Drawing upon the work of Kant, Schelling, Kierkegaard, Levinas, Derrida, and Marion, this work is written as a series of meditations. Matustik presents a bold new way of dealing with one of humanity's most intractable problems.

Opens a way for hope, forgiveness, redemption, and love to spring from evil

About the Author

Martin Beck Matustik is Lincoln Professor of Ethics and Religion at Arizona State University. He is author of Jurgen Habermas: Philosophical-Political Profile and Specters of Liberation. He has edited (with Merold Westphal) Kierkegaard in Post/Modernity (IUP, 1995).

Reviews

"This book deserves a large and thoughtful readership.... the insights are worth the effort." -Robert L. Perkins, Stetson University, Int J Philos Religion, May 13, 2009 (online)

"In a world filled with war, torture, and cruelty, where millions of people die of diseases related to malnutrition or inadequate health care each year, Martin Beck Matustik's book is an important and innovative inquiry into an age-old problem." -Rabbi Michael Lerner, Tikkun

Book Information
ISBN 9780253219688
Author Martin Beck Matustik
Format Paperback
Page Count 312
Imprint Indiana University Press
Publisher Indiana University Press