Good and Evil: Interpreting a Human Condition [Paperback]

Edward Farley (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1, 1990

This book is a theological account of a human condition attested to in religious faiths of the Hebraic and Christian heritage. What makes the account theological is its attention to the paradigm or vision of human evil and good (sin and redemption) present in some form in the primary symbols of these faiths. The account pertains to a human condition because it attempts to discover how elements of this paradigm enter and transform three spheres of human reality: agency, the interhuman, and the social.

This volume begins with a depiction of these three spheres, including various dimensions of human agency, thus postponing its specifically theological moment. The central aim of the volume is to understand how human evil and good arise in relation to these tragically structured spheres. Overall, the volume is both a series of discrete explorations (of courage, wonder, subjugation, and interhuman violation), and a comprehensive theory of human evil and good.

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Fortress Press; 1st edition (November 1, 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0800624475
• ISBN-13: 978-0800624477
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,689,255 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a refreshing and comprehensive theory of good and evil, September 26, 1999

By 

"ncodyjapan" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Good and Evil: Interpreting a Human Condition (Paperback)

This work by Edward Farley, a theologian at Vanderbilt University, is a refreshing and comprehensive theory of good and evil and how they transform the human condition. Its strength-- academic scholarship-- might be considered a weakness by some readers, but I can testify that it is well worth your time. I have read and reread it.

Let me give an example of his method: in the chapter dealing with agential evil (evil by individuals) he describes the human condition as tragically structured (as all living beings are), and how human beings respond to that situation through the dynamics of evil (idolatry) until they are finally transformed by the divine ground of all existence (God). Thus, the work is divided into two parts: Part I is philosophical, Part II is essentially theological. The context he describes is the context in which God has become meaningful to me.

After reading it and studying it, you are convinced many of his conclusions are common-sense things you always believed. But it takes a great work of scholarship to found those conclusions and articulate their complexity. And finally, as with all great books, you feel a debt of gratitude to the author. Thank you!

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars For those who want to understand what it is to be human, December 20, 1999

By 

Jonathan Strandjord (Chicago, IL United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Good and Evil: Interpreting a Human Condition (Paperback)

Edward Farley has written a superb book on what it is to be human. While drawing on the riches of the Christian theological tradition, he remedies some of the tradition's deficiencies--especially with regard to the tragic aspect of life. Farley is particulary insightful with regard to how human beings are made in the image of God and yet are temptable and fallible. Farley is to theology as Tolstoy is to fiction: both manage somehow to be unblinking observers of human wrong who yet see and report not with malice but compassion.