12/11/2023 0 Comments Diogenes allen adaptabilityHere, instead, you will find the detailed thought of St. This is not popular writing encouraging Christians to let the good times roll, of which Joseph Prince’s execrable Destined To Reign is one of a multitude, the only one I have had the misfortune to read. Probably this is why this book is often used as a ministry textbook (I am not studying for the ministry it was given to me as a gift by a friend of mine in our Bible study group). That said, all the theology Allen covers is unexceptional for any mainstream Christian-but very refined and treated with a depth that most people would not normally encounter. Certain aspects of episcopal Christianity therefore appear often in the book, in particular a willingness to synthesize Biblical exegesis, tradition and reason in a way that might not be found in a more strictly evangelical theologian. Rather, with the Orthodox theologian David Bentley Hart, I think that “God will not unite all of history’s many strands in one great synthesis, but will judge much of history false and damnable that he will not simply reveal the sublime logic of fallen nature but will strike off the fetters in which creation languishes and that, rather than showing us how the tears of a small girl suffering in the dark were necessary for the building of the Kingdom, he will instead raise her up and wipe away all tears from her eyes-and there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying, nor any more pain, for the former things will have passed away and he that sits upon the throne will say, ‘Behold, I make all things new.’ ” If, or more likely when, I am forced to suffer, and if my reaction is not humility, it is more likely to be anger at God than disbelief in God, though I hope it is neither.Īllen was a Presbyterian, but he mentions in this book that he is part of the Anglican tradition, and apparently he was a regular preacher at both Presbyterian and Anglican churches. Nor do I think that suffering is part of God’s plan, that He will later show us why it was necessary for the fulfilment of His purposes. The nature of a fallen world with free will necessarily implies suffering. But God does not guarantee us happiness in this life-quite the contrary. To be fair, that may be because I have suffered very little in my life (as they say, though, past performance is no guarantee of future results). Very many people struggle with theodicy-in essence, the theological question why God, if He is both all-good and all-powerful, permits suffering. Either way, the book is substantively excellent, if not an easy read. Thus, it might be more accurate if the book’s subtitle, “An Introduction to the Christian Faith,” were the title, and the actual title the subtitle. The book itself, however, is a sophisticated philosophical overview of Christianity in which troubles, as such, play little part. The author, the late Diogenes Allen, did not intend to convert in this work, rather he “intended to increase a critical but pious person’s understanding of the Christian religion.” True, the spur for his writing the book was receiving a letter from a man troubled by the particular problem of theodicy. That’s not precisely true this is not a work of apologetics. Graduate memorials are prepared by the APGA.From its title, Theology for a Troubled Believer seems directed at people having a crisis of faith. Craig Barnes, a former student of Allen’s and now the president of the seminary, said of Allen: “He had a wonderful gift for teaching us how to turn critical thinking into a spiritual practice.”Īllen is survived by his wife, Jane four children and eight grandchildren. He authored many books on philosophy and spirituality.ĭr. He became the Stuart Professor in 1981, and retired in 2002. He taught at York University in Ontario from 1964 to 1967 before joining Princeton Theological Seminary in 1967 as an associate professor of philosophy. In 1959, Allen was ordained a minister in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), and he was a pastor from 1958 to 1961. In 1959, he earned a bachelor’s degree in divinity from Yale, followed by an M.A. After a year, he went to Oxford as a Rhodes scholar and received a bachelor’s degree there in 1957. He was 80.Īllen earned a bachelor’s degree from Kentucky in 1954, and then studied philosophy at Princeton but left before earning a degree. Diogenes Allen, the Stuart Professor of Philosophy emeritus at Princeton Theological Seminary, died Jan.
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