God, Evil and the Limits of Theology

by Karen Kilby

Karen Kilby explores the doctrine of the Trinity and issues of evil, suffering and sin. She offers a critique of the lack of respect for mystery found in the most popular Trinitarian thinking of our time. Kilby gives an apophatic reading of Aquinas on the Trinity and offers a distinct next step in the sequence on the Trinity – the appeal of social doctrines of the Trinity lies principally in their ecclesial and political relevance. She engages with Miroslav Volf’s famous ‘ The Trinity is our social program ’ essay and addresses the question of what an alternative politics of an apophatic theology of the Trinity might look like. The essays explore the question of theodicy and argue that evil poses a question to Christians and Christian’s theology which can neither be answered nor dismissed. Kilby argues that Christians must live with this mystery, this lack of resolution, rather than trying to diminish the gravity of evil, or allowing evil to dictate their conception of God’s goodness or power. By offering a critical reading of Hans Urs von Balthasar and Julian of Norwich she explores the question of whether Christianity can avoid giving a positive valuation to suffering, and concludes the two represent two different strands within the Christian tradition in relation to thought on suffering.

Genres: Theology

170 pages, Paperback

Published September 23, 2021

Reviews

[Steven · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was probably not the intended audience for this book. I like to talk about God and religion and faith, but when it comes to the academic discipline of theology, I don't have enough background in the discipline or familiarity with the jargon to understand the ongoing conversation any given work is contributing to.

The most exciting thing I found in the whole book was a footnote recommending someone else's work on page 134: "The fascinating work of Emma Percy has taught me to think in parallels between mothering and priestly ministry. See her What Clergy Do: Especially When it Looks like Nothing (London: SPCK, 2014) and Mothering as a Metaphor for Ministry (Franham: Ashgate, 2014)."

As a non-trinitarian, I found little of value in the first four chapters, all of which deal with specifically trinitarian matters. They were helpful at least in introducing me to the idea of apophasis: explaining the limits of what can be known about something. That's the main theme of almost all the essays in the book -- the limits of theology. And while my knee-jerk reaction to many of the limits she described was to say, "but God has revealed the answer to that problem that to modern prophets", I tried to ask myself whether the same point was still valid at the edges of LDS theology. Is there more value in mystery about God than in knowing the answers? Is God less deserving of worship if God can be understood or make himself understood?

I think the fact that Latter-day Saints simply don't have any systematic theology or indeed any structure for developing one makes it more difficult for me to engage in studying theology.

[Thomas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent collection of essays by Catholic scholar Karen Kilby. The Trinity, evil, suffering, paradox and mystery, to name a few topics, are covered in this pages. Most helpful were the chapters on an apophatic approach to the Trinity, which serves as a needed corrective to those Trinitarianisms that seek to get a lot of traction out of the Trinity (e.g., social trinities). But I hasten to add that every essay was thought-provoking, clearly written and insightful. Highly recommended.

[David Willey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Uneven at times, but in the main this was both highly readable and thought-provoking