On 7th February at 1pm Rupert Shortt gave a seminar entitled ‘Science, Spirituality and the Problem of Evil’.
Lunch will be provided from 12:30 in the Healey Room, Westminster College, Cambridge.
His talk was based on his latest book ‘The Hardest Problem’.
How can a supposedly all-powerful and all-loving God permit evil and suffering on a grand scale?
The question has assailed people across cultures at least as far back as the biblical Book of Job. To sceptics, it forms clinching evidence that all talk of providence is childish — or even a dangerous delusion. Writing clearly and concisely but avoiding simplistic answers, Rupert Shortt argues that belief in a divine Creator is intellectually robust, despite apparent signs to the contrary. Having cleared the ground, he goes on to show how a Christian understanding, in particular, points the way forward through terrain where raw feeling, intellectual inquiry and the toughest trials of the spirit often overlap.
