From Misery to Hope: Encountering God in the Abyss of Suffering

How can one believe in a God of love amid all the evil and suffering found in the world? How does one do theology 'after Auschwitz', while vast numbers of people still have to endure violent oppression every day? This book seeks to address such questions from a standpoint informed by life in Africa, which in the face of extraordinary difficulties bears witness to Gospel hope by demonstrating forgiveness in action and promoting reconciliation.
The work unfolds in two parts. In the first part, a description of the misery that characterises much of life in Africa in the recent past opens up to a theological consideration of the underlying causes and of God's response to them. In the second part, the joy which is so characteristic of life in Africa even in places of immense suffering sets the scene for detailed reflections on liturgy, memory, forgiveness and hope.

Joe Egan taught theology in Liberia and Sierra Leone during the 1990s, at a time of civil unrest in both countries. He currently teaches at the Milltown Institute of Theology and Philosophy in Dublin, where his research is focused on the interaction between faith and culture in contemporary society. He is the author of The Godless Delusion: Dawkins and the Limits of Human Sight (Peter Lang, 2009) and co-editor (with Patrick Claffey) of Movement or Moment? Assessing Liberation Theology Forty Years after Medellín (Peter Lang, 2009).