Deliver Us from Evil

Evil is a problem that will not go away. For some it is an inescapable fact of the human condition. For others ＂evil＂ is a term that should only be used to name the most horrible of crimes. Still others think that the worst problem lies with the abuse of the term: using it to vilify a misunderstood enemy. No matter how we approach it, ＂evil＂ is a concept that continues to call out for critical reflection.

This volume collects the results of a two-year deliberation within the Boston University Institute for Philosophy of Religion lecture series, bringing together scholars of religion, literature, and philosophy. Its essays provide a thoughtful, sensitive, and wide-ranging consideration of this challenging problem-and of ways that we might be delivered from it.
Evil is a problem that will not go away. For some it is an inescapable fact of the human condition. For others ＂evil＂ is a term that should only be used to name the most horrible of crimes. Still others think that the worst problem lies with the abuse of the term: using it to vilify a misunderstood enemy. No matter how we approach it, ＂evil＂ is a concept that continues to call out for critical reflection.

This volume collects the results of a two-year deliberation within the Boston University Institute for Philosophy of Religion lecture series, bringing together scholars of religion, literature, and philosophy. Its essays provide a thoughtful, sensitive, and wide-ranging consideration of this challenging problem-and of ways that we might be delivered from it.

M. David Eckel is an Associate Professor of Religion at Boston University, USA, and Director of the Institute for Philosophy of Religion. His publications include Jñanagarbha’s Commentary on the Distinction between the Two Truths (1987), To See the Buddha: A Philosopher’s Quest for the Meaning of Emptiness (1994), and Understanding Buddhism (2003).

Bradley L. Herling is Professor of Religious Studies at Marymount Manhattan College, USA.