Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book considers explicitly theological responses to evil, including the contribution to our understanding of evil made by those theologians who focused on the idea of the death of God. It explores some key shifts in theological thinking which took place against the background of the wider scientific, political, social, and philosophical changes. The book reflects on the tensions between the practicalities of power and people's demand for freedom. It characterises morality, law, and politics as different forms of the ethical, and argues for the importance of recognising a distinction between genocide as a moral offence against individual human beings and genocide as an offence against the political order. Marxist political philosophy was not only of monumental importance within Western Europe and, what was then, the Soviet Union, it also had far-reaching effects upon China.