In a diverse and innovative selection of new essays by cutting-edge theologians and philosophers, Suffering Religion examines one of the most primitive but challenging questions to define human experience - why do we suffer? As a theme uniting very different religious and cultural traditions, the problem of suffering addresses issues of passivity, the vulnerability of embodiment, the generosity of love and the complexity of gendered desire. Interdisciplinary studies bring different kinds of interpretations to meet and enrich each other. Can the notion of goodness retain meaning in the face of real affliction, or is pain itself in conflict with meaning?
Themes covered include:
*philosophy's own failure to treat suffering seriously, with special reference to the Jewish tradition
*Martin Buber's celebrated interpretations of scriptural suffering
*suffering in Kristevan psychoanalysis, focusing on the Christian theology of the cross
*the pain of childbirth in a home setting as a religiously significant choice
*Gods primal suffering in the kabbalistic tradition
*Incarnation as a gracious willingness to suffer.

About the Author
Robert Gibbs, Elliot R. Wolfson

Reviews
'The book's interdisciplinary approach to a topic of universal concern seems especially fruitful... There probably are few, if any, more universal and pressing subjects in Religious Studies than this...a superior collection of essays in terms of both theory and depth.'- Jeffrey J. Kripal, Vira I. Heinz Associate Professor of Religion, Harvard Divinity School



Book Information
ISBN 9780415266123
Author Robert Gibbs
Format Paperback
Page Count 200
Imprint Routledge
Publisher Taylor & Francis Ltd
Weight(grams) 370g