A post from Dar

WHERE THEOLOGY MEETS THE ROAD . . .
(I'm sorry, I don't know how to post a new thread. But this kinda relates to this thread.)

This is what happened in our "living in paradise" city (of Honolulu, HI) yesterday:

Headline: "Babysitter throws toddler off Honolulu overpass"
- full story at www.honoluluadvertiser.com
(on Friday, January 18 -- you may have to go to the archive section if viewing after today)

In one response to this, one blogger commentor wrote, "When these things happen all I'm able to do is curl up in a ball. I won't read anything else about these tragedies as soon as I see the headline. There's no way to extinguish the pain. It happens every day all over the world, over and over. I get my faith confirmed every day: THAT THERE IS NO GOD. Just us out here on a ball, a maddening species with all the free will in the universe. We never seem to tire of killing each other finding, new ways to do it and finding new ways to deny our responsibility. Voices? So what? insanity is no excuse for anything."

I'm interested to know (from all you current or future pastors/ministers/theology teachers), what is your theological response and what does that look like in "real-world" ministry (as in addressing something like this horrible event)?

Anyone there?/ Favorite theologian

Since this blog has been dormant for some time, I thought I'd test the waters with a question to see if anyone is out there. Who is your favorite theologian, one dead and one living? Give a one or two sentence explanation of reasons why.

We need not be bound by strict disciplinary boundaries. Read "theologian" in a broad sense, i.e. Brevard Childs, Ellen Davis, the Niebuhr's, and others are eligible.