God's Problem: How the Bible Fails to Answer Our Most Important Question--Why We Suffer

by Bart D. Ehrman

Book Overview

In times of questioning and despair, people often quote the Bible to provide answers. Surprisingly, though, the Bible does not have one answer but many "answers" that often contradict one another. Consider these competing explanations for suffering put forth by various biblical writers: The prophets: suffering is a punishment for sin The book of Job, which offers two different answers: suffering is a test, and you will be rewarded later for passing...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0061173975
• ISBN13: 9780061173974
• Release Date: February 2008
• Publisher: HarperOne
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 1.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Superbly Scholarly statement of Problem for Lay reader. Buy It

`God's Problem' is prominent professional Biblical scholar, Bart Ehrman's fourth (or more, depending on how you are counting) book for lay audiences on issues of Biblical scholarship and interpretation which usually never escape college and seminary classrooms, filled with aging professors and relatively small classes. And, this one stands head and shoulders over the first three, `Lost Christianities', `Lost Scriptures', and `Misquoting Jesus' in its finding and exploring a really important Biblical issue for Christians (and Jews, for that matter). While the information in the other three books may have been a bit of a surprise for many lay readers, I can't say I was very disturbed about evidence that: `Lost Christianities' - There were several competing doctrines among early Christians, and the one we know today was not always the clear favorite. `Lost Gospels' - There are many Gospels and other first and second century Christian writings which suggested these positions, which did not make it into the final Christian canon (the 26 books of the New Testament). `Misquoting Jesus' - There are numerous potential errors in the texts of the canonical books, created by both simple mistakes and attempts of copyists to `improve' the texts. While all of these books are fascinating, extremely well researched, and told with deeply felt concern for the subject, my reaction to all is `This is all quite interesting, but no matter how relevant it may have been to Professor Ehrman's intellectual history, it is really not terribly earth-shaking. In any discourse, both ancient and modern, differences of opinion exist and mistakes are made in quoting sources, no matter how divine those sources may be held. `God's Problem' is an entirely different kettle of fish indeed! It deals with THE most important theological problem of any monotheistic religion, the problem of pain. Now this is an issue over which can raise some serious questions of belief. As someone with a pretty respectable training in Philosophy and a commitment to Christian beliefs, I find Professor Ehrman's exposition and arguments totally even-handed, marvelously well informed, and completely lacking in any interest to pry anyone from their own convictions. As a devoted reader of subtitles and introductions, I find a great irony in this subtitle, `How the Bible Fails to Answer Our Most Important Question - Why We Suffer'. The irony is that the problem is not that the Bible provides no answers; it is that the Bible provides at least four (4) different incompatible answers. The first is the answer of the Torah and the early prophets. Israel suffered because it was being punished by God for infidelity. The second answer is that of Job. We suffer to test our faith. The third is one answer of the Christian doctrine of Jesus and Paul. Pain and suffering are redemptive. The fourth (and possibly the most convincing to those of a logical bent) is that a malevolent force creates disasters large and small, from

Can the World's Suffering be Reconciled to a Benevolent God?

Bart Ehrman writes in heart-felt eloquent prose about his inability to reconcile a loving God with the world's suffering and scrutinizes the Bible's various explanations--suffering leads to wisdom and redemption; suffering is God's punishment for our sins; suffering is an inevitable consequence for man's "free will"--for suffering and argues that these explanations are not convincing. His book is not merely a theological exploration but a deeply personal chronicle of a man, a former evangelist, pastor, and true believer--who goes through a "deconversion experience." He longs to have his faith again and to have the comfort of eternal life with his Maker, but his scholarly research into the Bible has, as he points out in this book and other books, led him to conclude three things: The Bible was written by men with various agendas, some political; the Messiah believed the world would end before his apostles died and mistaken as such was not a divine personality; and that the world's suffering can not be explained by theology theories that strive to defend the notion of a benevolent and omnipotent god. Foregoing the comfort of salvation and still admitting to waking up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat over the possibility that he might spend eternity in hell for betraying his faith, Ehrman writes that he cannot have any integrity if he denies the insurmountable problems the world's suffering pose against the idea of an all-loving god and he is left to struggle with his agnosticism. This is a very intelligent, very smart, and, yes, a very human and honest book.

Checkmate

I liken Ehrman to an intelligent chess player who puts the squirming reader (who may not, at first, be inclined to agree with him) into methodical and logical checkmate. Ehrman shows why all the traditional moves that people make to explain suffering are, ultimately, inadequate, unsatisfying, or inhumane. He takes the reader on a guided tour of how different biblical authors attempt to explain suffering, beginning with the prophets Amos and Hosea and concluding with Revelation. Naturally, no Biblical author gives an adequate answer to the problem of suffering, and most give a rather reductive or simplistic answer. In many cases the Biblical authors' answers cannot, logically, cohere together. Periodically Ehrman points the reader to literature that dramatizes the problem of suffering (recommending, for example, the poems of Wilfred Owen and a play about Job written by Archibald MacLeish titled "J.B"). In short, Ehrman's book is a well written, honest reflection on the problem of suffering. It makes clear the logical and ethical issues posed when one turns to the Bible for "help" on this issue.

Faith vs. Reason

Bart Ehrman poses many questions all Christians should consider. He never suggests that everyone should follow him in leaving the Christian faith. However, he does discourage blind faith. Ehrman's books are as popular with my Christian colleagues who are secure in their faith as they are with my agnostic and atheist colleagues. It is my experience that his worst critics are individuals who don't wish to have their beliefs put to the test.