The problem of natural evil is a perennial issue that every generation of Christians has wrestled with and pondered. On the one hand, God has provided humans with a beautiful, finely tuned world, but on the other, this world contains viruses, hurricanes, and earthquakes. Surveying ancient, medieval, and contemporary Christian thought on natural evil, John Adair provides a wonderful resource to place this issue within its historical perspective. The Origins of Natural Evil is essential reading for anyone interested in Christian responses to natural evil throughout the centuries * B. Kyle Keltz, South Plains College * John Adair has given us a great gift. His historical theology of the origin of natural evil raises past perspectives to reconsider, challenges our own hermeneutical prejudices, and reawakens us to the brilliance, elegance, and possibility for both truth and error, saints and scoundrels, within theological cultures. Adairs panorama thereby humbles, informs, and enriches our own methods and traditions. The landscape he portrays ultimately has this consequence: it drives us to stare into the face of the ubiquitous problems of natural evil and human torment, urging us anew, as humans, as theologians, and as ministers to seek the face of God * D. Jeffrey Bingham, Research Professor of Historical Theology and Jesse Hendley Chair of Biblical Theology, Southwestern Seminary *
