God and Goodness

God and Goodness
Author: Mark Wynn
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 241
Release: 2002-11-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 113463823X

First Published in 2004. God and Goodness takes the experience of value as a starting point for natural theology. Mark Wynn argues that theism offers our best understanding of the goodness of the world, especially its beauty and openness to the development of richer and more complex material forms. We also see that the world's goodness calls for a moral response: commitment to the goodness of the world represents a natural extension of the trust to which we aspire in our dealings with human beings. Wynn argues that the goodness of the world provides a glimpse into what we should mean by 'God'. Here, he seeks to recover the mediaeval sense that the goodness of the world offers an image of the goodness of God, not simply in relation to the world, but in itself. This book will be an invaluable read for those interested in natural theology and philosophy of religion.

The Goodness of God

The Goodness of God
Author: Randy Alcorn
Publisher: Multnomah
Total Pages: 130
Release: 2010-08-10
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1601423535

For those times when we’re wounded by broken trust, assaulted by disease, or victimized by evil—or when we’re crushed to see such things happen to people we love—Randy Alcorn offers something solid to hold onto: God's love. In this specially focused condensation of Alcorn’s If God Is Good…: Faith in the Midst of Suffering and Evil, we’re continually guided into a deeper glimpse of God’s loving ways and higher purposes—the very things we’re often most blinded to whenever we battle pain and anguish. Alcorn avoids superficial or sentimental responses, and instead presses forward boldly to explore all the troubling doubts and questions that agitate within us when we confront suffering and evil. The issues are far from simple, the answers far from easy—but Alcorn shows how the way of suffering—a path that Jesus himself followed more than anyone else—can ultimately become a journey into wholeness and even logic-defying joy.

Spirit and Sacrament

Spirit and Sacrament
Author: Andrew Wilson
Publisher: Zondervan
Total Pages: 144
Release: 2019-01-08
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0310536480

Spirit and Sacrament by pastor and author Andrew Wilson is an impassioned call to join together two traditions that are frequently and unnecessarily kept separate. It is an invitation to pursue the best of both worlds in worship, the Eucharistic and the charismatic, with the grace of God at the center. Wilson envisions church services in which healing testimonies and prayers of confession coexist, the congregation sings When I Survey the Wondrous Cross followed by Happy Day, and creeds move the soul while singing moves the body. He imagines a worship service that could come out of the book of Acts: Young men see visions, old men dream dreams, sons and daughters prophesy, and they all come together to the same Table and go on their way rejoicing. In short, Spirit and Sacrament is an appeal to bring out of the church's storehouse all of its treasures, so that God's people can worship our unrivaled Savior with sacraments and spiritual gifts, raised hands and lowered faces.

Sense and Goodness Without God

Sense and Goodness Without God
Author: Richard Carrier
Publisher: AuthorHouse
Total Pages: 446
Release: 2005-02-23
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1452059268

If God does not exist, then what does? Is there good and evil, and should we care? How do we know what’s true anyway? And can we make any sense of this universe, or our own lives? Sense and Goodness answers all these questions in lavish detail, without complex jargon. A complete worldview is presented and defended, covering every subject from knowledge to art, from metaphysics to morality, from theology to politics. Topics include free will, the nature of the universe, the meaning of life, and much more, arguing from scientific evidence that there is only a physical, natural world without gods or spirits, but that we can still live a life of love, meaning, and joy.

Horrendous Evils and the Goodness of God

Horrendous Evils and the Goodness of God
Author: Marilyn McCord Adams
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Total Pages: 237
Release: 2018-09-05
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1501735926

When confronted by horrendous evil, even the most pious believer may question not only life's worth but also God's power and goodness. A distinguished philosopher and a practicing minister, Marilyn McCord Adams has written a highly original work on a fundamental dilemma of Christian thought—how to reconcile faith in God with the evils that afflict human beings. Adams argues that much of the discussion in analytic philosophy of religion over the last forty years has offered too narrow an understanding of the problem. The ground rules accepted for the discussion have usually led philosophers to avert their gaze from the worst—horrendous—evils and their devastating impact on human lives. They have agreed to debate the issue on the basis of religion-neutral values, and have focused on morals, an approach that—Adams claims—is inadequate for formulating and solving the problem of horrendous evils. She emphasizes instead the fruitfulness of other evaluative categories such as purity and defilement, honor and shame, and aesthetics. If redirected, philosophical reflection on evil can, Adams's book demonstrates, provide a valuable approach not only to theories of God and evil but also to pastoral care.

God's Goodness in You and Me

God's Goodness in You and Me
Author: Kelly Kainer Billington
Publisher: WestBow Press
Total Pages: 24
Release: 2019-01-28
Genre: Juvenile Nonfiction
ISBN: 197363533X

This God-inspired book focuses on helping parents present God’s Goodness to their children. It encourages habits that bring God to the forefront of daily living. It shares simple ways parents can teach their children to look for God’s goodness in all that we do. It conveys that we can see His Goodness through each one of our smiles, as well as in the sky during the day and night, and through the fruits of the spirit. It reminds us that we should be able to recognize when His enemy Satan is having an influence in our lives as well, but that God is always with us everywhere we go. It shares with parents a simple way to keep God active in our lives through prayer at the table, bedtime, and church. It also expresses the importance of being grateful for all that God has done for us and for His unconditional love. It reminds us that All things are possible with God and that we are nothing without Him. His goodness can indeed be seen in You and Me all around the world!

Suffering and the Goodness of God

Suffering and the Goodness of God
Author: Robert A. Peterson
Publisher: Crossway
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2008
Genre: Bible
ISBN: 9781581348590

Suffering and the Goodness of God presents biblical truths concerning suffering and challenges believers to promote justice and to emulate God's grace as they minister to others. Famine. Sickness. Terrorist Attacks. Natural disasters. Each day horrific scenes of suffering are streamed before us through television, the Internet, and newspapers. Believers are taught that God is good, and they believe this truth. Yet when they are faced with suffering and hardships, the one question believers most often asked is, Why? Suffering and the Goodness of God brings insight to many contemporary concerns of suffering by outlining Old and New Testament truths and tackling difficult questions concerning God's sovereignty, human freedom, and the nature of evil. Suffering and the Goodness of God offers believers biblical truths concerning suffering and then challenges them to promote justice in the harsh, unsure world around them and to emulate God's grace as they minister to those who are suffering. Part of the Theology in Community series.

Goodness, God, and Evil

Goodness, God, and Evil
Author: David E. Alexander
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Total Pages: 169
Release: 2012-05-24
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1441199845

Most contemporary versions of moral realism are beset with difficulties. Many of these difficulties arise because of a faulty conception of the nature of goodness. Goodness, God, and Evil lays out and defends a new version of moral realism that re-conceives the nature of goodness. Alexander argues that the adjective 'good' is best thought of as an attributive adjective and not as a predicative one. In other words, the adjective 'good' logically cannot be detached from the noun (or noun phrase) that it modifies. It is further argued that this conception of the function of the adjective implies that recent attempts to provide necessary a posteriori identities between goodness and something else must fail. The convertibility of being and goodness, the privation theory of evil, a denial of the fact-value distinction, human nature as the ground of human morality and even a novel argument for the existence of God are some of the implications of the account of goodness that Alexander offers.

The Goodness and Severity of God

The Goodness and Severity of God
Author: Dr. Brian J. Bailey
Publisher: Zion Christian Publishers
Total Pages: 124
Release: 2017-09-14
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1596656875

The Goodness and Severity of God succinctly portrays these two aspects of God’s character and provides an excellent guide for attaining God’s goodness and being spared from His severity. With the love of so many growing cold and deception abounding, it is vital that we be able to determine our standing on God’s pathway of holiness, so that like Daniel, our life would be approved of the Lord and we would stand in our appointed place in heaven for all eternity.