Life is at once wonderful and appalling, beautiful and horrific.
Although we can all invest our lives with meaning by trying to
live well, is there a given meaning to be discovered? Science
cannot answer this question, and philosophical arguments
leave the issue open. The monotheistic religions claim that
the meaning has been revealed to us, and Christians see this
above all in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.
Described by Rowan Williams as ‘that rarity, a Christian public
intellectual’, Richard Harries considers the Christian claim in
the context of an in-depth discussion on the nature of evil
and how this is to be reconciled with a just and loving God.
Drawing on a wide range of modern literature, he argues
that belief in the resurrection and hope in the face of death
is fundamental to faith. In addition, he suggests that while
there is no final intellectual answer to the problem of evil,
we must all, believer and non-believer alike, protest against
wickedness and seek to change the world, rather than accept
it as it is.