Jean-Miguel Garrigues

With rich theological language that will appeal to a broad audience, this beautifully written book offers a hopeful interpretation of the problem of evil that plagues our time. In God without the Idea of Evil, well-known French Catholic theologian Jean-Miguel Garrigues, O. P., seeks to rise above the apparent contradiction of faith and the existence of evil, suffering, and death. Originally published in France as Dieu sans idée du mal in 1982, a revised second edition came out in 1990, and in 2016 the book was released again with a foreword by Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, which serves as the basis for the present translation. At its heart, this book contemplates the mystery of our election by God, which is expressed in the very fact of our existence. Garrigues addresses compelling theological topics—the concept of moral evil, the "redemptive charity" of Christ, the "journey" of human liberty, and the process of "nature becoming history"—with precise, poetically charged language that remains accessible. Garrigues makes a passionate defense of the innocence of God in the face of moral evil. By enveloping us in his look, as Cardinal Schönborn writes in the foreword, "God encounters us in the very gift of being that he bestows upon us, and his eyes do not see our sin." The book invites us to rediscover in the eyes of Jesus the eternal, continually renewed charm of the divine gaze. We are illumined and inspired by a vision of God who "does not see us through the evil in us," but rather loves us from the infinite depths of his creative charity.

In this series of beautiful and accessible meditations, Fr. Jean-Miguel Garrigues examines death and eternal life in the light of Christian revelation. His work is the fruit of years of sustained theological reflection, as well as his own experience accompanying terminally ill cancer patients as a hospital chaplain. At the Hour of Our Death nourishes the vitally important theological virtue of hope. It encourages us to accompany the dying with compassion, love, and prayer, to live in communion with the saints of heaven and the holy souls of purgatory, and to wisely and serenely prepare ourselves for the day when we, too, will be called to accomplish, in the company of Jesus, the great Passover from this life to the house of our heavenly Father. The worldwide pandemic has brought end-of-life issues closer to many people than ever before. Fr. Jean Miguel's insights, lucidly rendered into English by Fr. Gregory Casprini, will serve as a help and consolation to many, strengthening their faith and encouraging them to pray for and accompany others.