In this monograph, Chris M. Palmer employs a Pentecostal reading strategy of
Wirkungsgeschichte and narrative analysis to explore the themes of suffering and theodicy in the Apocalypse.
The study surveys scholarly literature relevant to suffering and theodicy in the Apocalypse, and it examines early North American Pentecostal periodical literature from 1906-1919 in order to hear the voices of the early Pentecostal community during the heart of its movement and during WWI and the Flu pandemic.
The study moves forward into a narrative reading of the Apocalypse focusing on texts that are germane to suffering and theodicy.
Finally, Palmer constructs a theology of suffering and theodicy in light of the Apocalypse while offering overtures toward the construction of a Pentecostal theodicy.
This work is the most comprehensive exploration of the most recent research on suffering and theodicy in the Apocalypse; it offers the first reception history of how early North American Pentecostals understood suffering and theodicy from the Apocalypse; and it provides the most comprehensive narrative/literary approach to the themes of suffering and theodicy in the Apocalypse.
Chris M. Palmer (PhD, Bangor University) is Dean of the Barnett College of Ministry and Theology, Southeastern University, Lakeland, FL, USA.
