Скачать книгу - In the Absence of the Gift

In Purity of Absence, Dave Margoshes explores love in its waxing and waning, the extravagance of its fullness, the agony of its departure. Like an explorer charting new territory, he casts his eye on the rhythms and syntax of love, observing its aspects both quotidian and rare. The poems in this new collection, Margoshes’s first in a decade, chart the ekg patterns of love, not just the mature love between a man and a woman but love for a parent, friends, knowledge, place and, ultimately, life itself.

The author's theological inquiry is intended to raise questions of interpretation within the camp of openness theology and to direct a discussion on the implications of this movement for the charismatic/Pentecostal community. 
Open theism or openness theology affirms that the universe is open, the future is not settled, God is essentially relational love, and the risks of love and the threats against it are real. The author digs deep into this area of doctrine in order to question how far openness theology is willing to go. Is it only the future that is open to God, or are there perhaps unknown aspects to the past and present as well?
What does God know about sin, and when does he know it? Is it possible for God to be totally absent from a person's life or even from an entire nation? If God can be absent, can he also be exceptionally present in the lives of believers? What would the divine presence and the charismata (spiritual ministries) look like in an open universe?

What transpires when Classical Pentecostals pray for God to intervene within their suffering, but God does not? Traditionally, Classical Pentecostals center on encountering God as demonstrated through the relating of testimonies of their experiences with God. In seeking to contribute to a theology of suffering for Pentecostals, Pam Engelbert lifts up the stories of eight Classical Pentecostals to discover how they experienced God and others amidst their extended suffering even when God did not intervene as they had prayed. By valuing each story, this qualitative practical theology work embraces a Pentecostal hermeneutic of experience combined with Scripture, namely the Gospel of John. As a Pentecostal practical theological project it offers a praxis (theology of action) of suffering and healing during times when we experience the apparent absence of God. It invites the reader to enter into the space of the other's suffering by way of empathy, and thereby participate in God's act of ministry to humanity through God's expression of empathy in the very person of Jesus.