Background

The project dealing with the concept of theodicy and its various relevances to the study of the Bible, the New Testament, and their world began as a spin-off of the research of the covenant. See for instance Jesus and Jewish Covenant Thinking. Participation in the collaborative volume Theodicy in the World of the Bible was also seminal in that it allowed me to familiarize myself with the theodicy concept and map out the most important New Testament applications of it.

In a number of studies I have so far investigated theodicean motifs as they appear in the New Testament, as they were used by Paul, and as they can illuminate the teaching of Jesus. A new monograph is forthcoming that explores Hellenistic, Jewish and Christian views on the matter, the theme of cross serving as the center of attention. As soon as I have finished it, I believe, an interdiciplinary cooperation is called for. New Testament themes have importantly fueled the modern systematic-theological and philosophical discussion of the theodicy problem.