This dissertation studies aesthetic, political and ethical dimensions of the representation of Holocaust perpetrators in Hebrew and Israeli fiction published since the mid-1940s. Drawing on recent scholarship by Holocaust historians, such as Christopher Browning and Daniel Goldh…
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In this dissertation, I focus on literary representations of the partition of British India in 1947 during which approximately one million people were massacred, eight to ten million people were displaced, and women of minority communities were systematically raped, mutilated an…
Contemporary writers Albert Camus, Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt, Elie Wiesel, and Sylvie Germain transpose the problem confronting the biblical Job in a century of total wars and genocides. Broadly influenced by a range of (a)theological perspectives, these authors grapple with existen…
This thesis explores the 'theories of Bataille and Baudrillard' in relation to the problem of extreme violence. The particular events of concern are the death of James Bulger, the Dunblane massacre and the 'serial killers' Frederick and Rosemary West. The thesis argues that domi…
Chapter one addresses a primary source of Hitler's iconic image, Leni Riefenstahl, who established not only Hitler's cinematic image but also how he was visualized in the popular imagination. I place The Blue Light (1932), the film that inspired Hitler's admiration, in dialogue …
Humans look for a quick and comforting explanation for why bad things happen. One popular explanation is to believe good and evil are active forces affecting people and events. Past research suggests belief in evil is associated with harsher judgments and less prosocial behavior…
Traditionally, philosophers have treated the problems posed by evil as potential counterarguments against theism. Theistic philosophers remedy problems posed by evil by constructing arguments that square the existence of a personal, providential God with the reality of evil. How…
The purpose of the basic descriptive study was to understand how North Korean Christian refugees describe evil based on their lived experiences. Employing a qualitative research design, this study utilized a constructivist lens to construct meaning with the participants. Using p…
The Grace Concealed in Suffering: Developing Virtue and Beatitude Suffering, despite being a fundamental and universally experienced human phenomenon, is an enigma to most people. When they experience it, many ask, “Why me?” Some will turn to God for help when trouble arises whi…
This thesis explores the application of reader-response criticism, specifically that of Wolfgang Iser, to Qur'anic narrative. The narratives in question are the seven different renditions of the Iblis story. Commentary on the Qur'an traditionally approaches the text atomisticall…
This is a study of paranoia, not as a psychological malady, but as a way of seeing, or worldview. The author begins by distinguishing the paranoid vision from paranoia in the clinical sense, and from what the historian Richard Hofstadter called "the paranoid style." He then argu…
This work elucidates elements of Leibniz's theodicy which are non-teleological. Rather than ignoring the personal dimensions of suffering, as some have charged, Leibniz actually recognizes the threat that the problem of innocent suffering presents for a perfectly good God. His t…