Customer Reviews

Defending God: Biblical Responses to the Problem of Evil

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My reading of `Defending God, Biblical Responses to the Problem of Evil' by Old Testament scholar and expert on the issue of `Theodicy' (the fancy name for the problem of evil), James L. Crenshaw, shows me that my earlier praise for Bart Ehrman's recent book, `God's Problem', may have been just a bit premature.

While Ehrman, a major player in Biblical scholarship, but no expert in this field, cites four different `Biblical responses'. While these are the ones we are likely to all think of first, Crenshaw demonstrates that this list is far from complete, and gives us a detailed discussion of ten (10) different responses. Now admittedly, his first two are just a bit thin, with little scriptural support, but these still make Crenshaw's book a far better sourcebook on this problem than Ehrman.

But, I am not about to remove one or more of Ehrman's stars, because just as Crenshaw shows Ehrman's weaknesses, Ehrman demonstrates Crenshaw's weaknesses, especially for a lay audience. The first thing which strikes me is that unlike Ehrman, Crenshaw often does not include the quote from scripture on which he is basing his discussion. This is somewhat noisome to Crenshaw's approach, as he also presents many arguments about texts based on fine points of translation from the Hebrew. While I am just barely starting to find my way around New Testament Greek, the niceties of Hebrew translation are almost totally lost on me. To a great extent, this is my weakness, but it also weakens the value of Crenshaw's book for a lay audience, especially those, like me, who wish to use it as a guide to a Bible study course on the subject of theodicy.

Another area where Ehrman still shines alongside Crenshaw is when he is characterizing the general approach of the various authors of Ecclesiastes, Job, Daniel, Amos, Hosea, and Revelations. He makes the telling comment that the author of Ecclesiastes, unlike the prophets, is pointedly describing the world as he sees it, not as revealed by private communications with God. Crenshaw has similar observations, but they tend to be less accessible to the lay reader.

Crenshaw's strongest features are that this book provides a great guide to important literature and commentary on the problem of theodicy. He also offers an excellent defense of the scriptures, with sound instructions on how one is to read and understand the many references to God's actions which are capricious and certainly outside our human concepts of justice. Crenshaw looks at exactly the same evidence examined by Ehrman and does not come to the same agnostic conclusion. That alone makes this a book one should read alongside `God's Problem'.

Addendum: My overall opinion of Crenshaw's book is unchanged, but his count of 10 Biblical answers to evil is a bit off, as his first, atheism is overstated. Psalm 10 does not refer to the absence of God. It cites God's distance from the Psalmist. There is NO true disbelief in God in the Old or New Testaments.

Despite the title, this is not a book of theodicy (a defense of God). This is a book describing theodicies (plural) in the Bible. As another reviewer has noted, this is very similar to what Bart Ehrman tried to do (unsuccessfully in my opinion) in his book "God's Problem."

In that book, Ehrman describes situations of clear evil in the world, and then writing outside of his expertise concludes that the Bible offers no effective answers to the problem of evil. Since Ehrman has become something of a popular skeptical writer (due to his background), it's no surprise that he tackles this topic. With that said, you wouldn't expect an unbiased opinion to come from his pen. What Crenshaw does (although there is no intentional interaction with Ehrman), is show that Ehrman's reading of the text is simplistic at best and naïve at worst. Crenshaw's aim is to discuss in depth the various ways that the biblical writers deal with defending God in the face of evil. He gives ten responses from the Bible to evil (both natural and personal). In each of them he sees a trajectory that develops throughout the biblical tradition, but sees none (in and of themselves) as ultimately effective, although a culmulative argument might be made. His analysis is extremely thoughtful and thorough.

So why only three stars? There are two main reasons. First, I do not find Crenshaw to be a good writer. This is not popular reading, but intended for a scholarly audience. Therefore, one would not expect readability to be a virtue in such an endeavor. Still, can one remain so utterly dispassionate on such a topic? Having heard Crenshaw lecture in the past, I know that he personally has struggled deeply with the topic and that makes him all the more compelling to hear. Unfortunately, this deep struggle does not find its way into these pages as the feel of the writing is largely emotionless. Second, the electronic format was terrible. When you spend $40 on a Kindle book (most are $10), you should expect quality. Surely, the price comes due to the publisher (OUP), but such poor formatting cannot find a $40 price tag to be justifiable.