The author's undergraduate experience as a monk and subsequently as a soldier in Vietnam brought him face-to-face with the problem of evil: Why would an all-good, all-knowing, all-powerful being not prevent or stop the carnage? The question drove Goodwin to study theology at the University of Chicago, where he found the outlines of an answer. This book, based on his classes with students over the years, makes the case for--and for rethinking--theism.
George L. Goodwin is president emeritus and retired professor of religious studies at The College of St. Scholastica in Duluth, Minnesota. He is the author of The Ontological Argument of Charles Hartshorne (1978).
“Larry Goodwin captures the best thinking in the Western tradition about the meaning of human life. His carefully crafted prose is accessible to the general reader without sacrificing rigor or nuance. This essay is a testament to a lifetime of thinking about life’s biggest questions.”
—Thomas W. Morgan, The College of St. Scholastica, emeritus
“Our daughter started asking God questions at age three. You know: ‘Where/who/what is God.’ Larry Goodwin is her godfather. I regularly had her phone him. He patiently and clearly answered (often by asking more engaging questions) in ways that realistically combine faith and reason. He is a big part of why she still thinks about these things thirty years later. In Testament, Larry still deeply engages people of all ages in thinking productively about faith and reason.”
—Will Mowchan, pastor, Pilgrim Lutheran Church ECLA
“Larry Goodwin has written his own ‘testament’ from the heart in a way that also appeals to the head. He argues that we can trust in the God of pure, ‘agapic’ love, not only because only this makes existential sense, but because nothing else makes such good intellectual sense as well. And he explains that this—and only this—is what Christian faith is all about. Testament is short, sweet and, above all, sound.”
—Philip Devenish, translator of Konrad Hammann, Rudolf Bultmann: A Biography