God and Evil: In the Theology of St Thomas Aquinas

by Herbert McCabe

Overview

Herbert McCabe was one of the most original and creative theologians of recent years. Continuum has published numerous volumes of unpublished typescripts left behind by him following his untimely death in 2001. This book is the sixth to appear. McCabe was deeply immersed in the philosophical theology of St Thomas Aquinas and was responsible in part for the notable revival of interest in the thought of Aquinas in our time.

Here he tackles the problem of evil by focusing and commenting on what Aquinas said about it. What should we mean by words such as 'good', 'bad', 'being', 'cause', 'creation', and 'God'? These are McCabe's main questions. In seeking to answer them he demonstrates why it cannot be shown that evil disproves God's existence. He also explains how we can rightly think of evil in a world made by God. McCabe's approach to God and evil is refreshingly unconventional given much that has been said about it of late. Yet it is also very traditional. It will interest and inform anyone seriously interested in the topic.
Herbert McCabe was one of the most original and creative theologians of recent years. Continuum has published numerous volumes of unpublished typescripts left behind by him following his untimely death in 2001. This book is the sixth to appear. McCabe was deeply immersed in the philosophical theology of St Thomas Aquinas and was responsible in part for the notable revival of interest in the thought of Aquinas in our time.

Here he tackles the problem of evil by focusing and commenting on what Aquinas said about it. What should we mean by words such as 'good', 'bad', 'being', 'cause', 'creation', and 'God'? These are McCabe's main questions. In seeking to answer them he demonstrates why it cannot be shown that evil disproves God's existence. He also explains how we can rightly think of evil in a world made by God. McCabe's approach to God and evil is refreshingly unconventional given much that has been said about it of late. Yet it is also very traditional. It will interest and inform anyone seriously interested in the topic.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780826413048
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	04/26/2010
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Herbert McCabe was a Dominican Friar and theologian of outstanding originality who died in 2001. He was deeply influential on philosophers such as Anthony Kenny and Alasdair MacIntyre and poets and writers like Terry Eagleton and Seamus Heaney.

Table of Contents

Foreword Terry Eagleton vii

Introduction Brian Davies Op xiii

1 The statement of the Problem 1

2 Metaphysical Preliminaries 13

3 Good and Evil 51

4 The Creator and Evil 71

5 The Cause of Evil 109

Afterword 131

Appendix 1 'Categories' 139

Appendix 2 Editions of St Thomas's Writings Cited in this Volume 187

Bibliography 191

Index 195

Editorial Reviews

Mentioned in Church Times, March 2010

Edited vesion of Terry Eagleton's Foreword printed in The Tablet, 12th June 2010.

'[McCabe was] a highly creative and insightful thinker, who had vivid sense of what was of enduring human importance beneath the technical tangles of philosophical and theological debate.' The Tablet

From the Publisher