- God’s purpose for this world is two-fold—to glorify himself and to make his human creatures happy.
- These two purposes are actually and finally one and the same thing. For God is glorified when his human creatures find their joy in him, and that is the only way to finally be happy—to live in praise to him as the true Good, Beauty and Truth.
Gerald McDermott born in Pittsburgh, is a professor at Beeson Divinity School. His favorite movie is “Ushpizin” (view the trailer here). They had a great dog named Jaffa, named after their favorite place in the world, Jaffa, Israel. His favorite smell is petrichor. Some of his favorite books, which he recommends widely, are Mr Blue, A Severe Mercy, Sabbath by Abraham Heschel, and the trilogy Jesus of Nazareth by Pope Benedict. His first job was at an ice cream parlor in 8th grade. He was fired because he did such a lousy job. When he’s not reading and writing and teaching theology, he loves running, the Boston Red Sox, being with his ten grandchildren, going to Israel (17 trips thus far), and spending time with his wife of 43 years. He grew up Catholic in Boston and New York, went to a Jesuit high school in New York City. During one of the summers he washed dishes on a Greek ship in the Aegean Sea where they worked 14 hours a day for 14 cents an hour. After college he joined a Christian commune where he met his wife. They lived in Christian communes for 9 (for her) and 7 (for him) years, and had their first two sons there. You can hear his podcast here and read a recent exchange on Israel here.
