October 16, 2007

MINNEAPOLIS – Evil seems palpable today. From natural catastrophes to horrific human violence to death-dealing social systems, evil calls out ever more dramatically for explanation and understanding.

Yet despite millennia of reflection, no consensus has developed on the character and dynamics of evil. In a masterful new survey volume, Dimensions of Evil: Contemporary Perspectives, author Terry Cooper composes a framework for analysis of the many dimensions and aspects of the question of evil.

Cooper interrogates the most salient philosophers, theologians, psychologists, and social scientists of the last one hundred years on the question, examining three dimensions of evil (natural, personal, and social) surveying evolutionary, psychoanalytic, humanistic, cognitive-behavioral, and liberationist views concerning destruction and disaster.

Each of these discourses is brought into dialogue with critical theological reflection. Questions such as whether a post-Darwinian view of providence is possible, whether human destructiveness is rooted in our biology, whether we can heal our own malignant inclinations, and whether sin is primarily a personal or systemic problem are all explored.

In Dimensions of Evil Cooper's work captures insights from several quarters and overcomes the narrow ways in which evil is understood in the different disciplines. And his clear distinction of evil in natural, personal, and social realms allows readers to sort through the many layers and mechanisms of evil as well as the exciting perspectives on evil that illumine our world today.

Terry D. Cooper is Professor of Psychology at St. Louis Community College, Meremec, Missouri, co-author with Don S. Browning of Religious Thought and the Modern Psychologies (2nd ed., 2005), and author of Paul Tillich and Psychology (2005) as well as Sin, Pride, and Self-Acceptance: The Problem of Identity in Theology and Psychology (2003).

Dimensions of Evil: Contemporary Perspectives, By Terry D. Cooper, Item No: 978-0-8006-6217-2, Format: Paperback, 288 pages, 6 x 9 inches, Price: $22.00.

To order Dimensions of Evil: Contemporary Perspectives please call Fortress Press at 1-800-328-4648 or visit the Web site at http://www.fortresspress.com/.

Fortress Press