Fall 2021 Seminar
The Theodicy Issue:
Reconciling the Realities of God and Evil
If ‘God is great’ and ‘God is good,’ why are evil
and suffering so pervasive in this world?
Instructor:
Dr. Jefrey Breshears
Dates and Time:
Wednesdays, Aug 18 – Nov 3,
7:00 – 8:30 PM
Registration:
$60 or $100 per couple
Location:
Johnson Ferry Baptist Church, Room 108
(Note: This course is available in-person and/or via Zoom.)
Supplemental Readings (optional):
Philip Yancey, Where Is God When It Hurts? Anniversary Edition (Zondervan, 2002)
C. S. Lewis, A Grief Observed (HarperSanFrancisco, 1961)
Alexander Solzhenitsyn, One Day In the Life of Ivan Denisovich (Ballantine Books, 1977)
Course synopsis:
This course examines the problem of God and evil through three correlative means – Biblical theology, philosophy, and literary art – and in the process we address issues such as…
- What are the sources of suffering?
- Is the problem of God and evil evidence for atheism?
- The nature of good and evil.
- The irony of human freedom.
- What about natural disasters that kill innocent people?
- Suffering in the Bible.
- Why does God allow evil and suffering?
- Why didn’t God create a perfect world without sin and suffering?
- Suffering as a pathway to grace and redemption.
Note on the Instructor: Dr. Jefrey Breshears is an author, historian, a former university
professor, and the founder and president of The Areopagus, a Christian education ministry in the
Atlanta area.