, x + 150 pp., pb $30 William Greenway's The Challenge of Evil constitutes a thought-provoking philosophical inquiry that invites readers to step away from a self-centered position and open their hearts to experiencing the primordial love for others. Presented as a work of 'philosophical spirituality' (p. 11), this book challenges nihilistic denial and renunciation of faith in God by discussing 'the challenge of affirming ourselves and our world in the face of all the pain, suffering, and injustice suffusing existence' (p. 5). Greenway poses a haunting and ethical question: how we can continue to exist and experience joy, while we also witness and are aware of injustice and suffering. In other words, how do we react when faced with 'the spiritual challenge of evil'? (p. 5). While not offering an explanation of evil, Greenway unfolds an engaging argument that challenges its readers to open their eyes to evil and their hearts to the divine. This awakening affords not only the experience of love and moments of joy but also a way of accepting a reality that comprises both good and evil. The book is structured in three parts that guide the reader from the problematic stance of denying evil to the salvation offered by faith and the experience of the agape, and later to literary figures that illustrate the implications of living as a self-centered person or as one fully awakened to love for others. Part One consists of engaging perspectives on how rejecting God or denying the reality of evil in the world constitute derivative ways of protecting oneself from the awareness and the pain caused by evil. Engaging with Nietzschean nihilism, especially the idea of 'self-overcoming of our primordial moral sensitivities' (p. 35), and with Sartre's concept of autonomous choice as a means of self-definition, Greenway demonstrates how moral sensitivity and the experience of love for others is 'primordial, pre-intentional, prereflective' (p. 40). An essential concept that underpins Greenway's argument for the experience of love and sympathy for others is the 'Face'. Borrowing from Emmanuel Levinas, Greenway correlates agape-'gracious love that we receive for all others and for ourselves' (p. 8)with finding oneself 'seized' by the Faces of others, where the capital F represents the awareness of 'their infinite worth' (p. 12). Crucial to Greenway's argument is the idea that while individuals find themselves 'seized in and by love for Faces' (p. 13), which implies concern and sympathy, they can exercise free will and shut themselves to the world and its Faces. This choice, referred to through the evocative metaphor of 'hardening one's heart to having been seized in and by love' (p. 13), coincides with the nihilistic stance and, by extension, the denial of the challenge posed by evil. Another salient aspect of this book is the discussion of biocentrism as another form of denying the reality of evil by resorting to the idea of an Reviews 638
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