It is clear from this book that the problem of evil has long been a pressing concern of John Feinberg. What started out as a doctoral dissertation many years ago has morphed into an effective and mostly comprehensive exploration of this perennial problem from an evangelical perspective. While I don't agree with everything Feinberg proposes, I do think evangelicals of all theological stripes will be greatly informed by this book.
Among the strengths of the book is Feinberg's interaction with the ideas of non-evangelicals where the problem of evil is concerned. He effectively and thoughtfully interacts with a number of non-evangelicals as well as skeptics, and this alone is noteworthy. Feinberg seems to be interested in constructive, yet principled dialogue with those outside his own camp, and as an evangelical, it is hoped by this reader that such dialogue will be reciprocated by theological liberals who claim to be interested in such dialogue.
I also thought that Feinberg's view that the problem of evil is actually a series of problemS of evil is penetrating and really helps the comprehensive treatment of the subject that we see here. While I might quibble a bit with the degree to which Feinberg attempts to categorize these various problems, and thus arguably diminishes their interrelated nature, I do think this approach does justice to the issue and helps avoid a facile examination that too often plagues evangelical treatments of the subject. In particular, his 'religious problem of evil', which is really the existential problem of evil, is a valuable and thoughtful addition that evangelical scholarship in the theodicy area has been severely neglectful of. Feinberg deserves a standing ovation for devoting a solid portion of the book to discussing this aspect of the problem of evil, and it is hoped that other evangelicals will wake up and follow Feinberg's lead whenever they address the problem of evil in their writings, classroom lectures, and conversations with those around them.
I also strongly agree with the contention that one's theology will (and should) greatly influence how a Christian (or anyone for that matter) addresses the existence of evil. The problem of evil is not an isolated matter that can be addressed in a vacuum. Our theology should and will greatly inform how we address it, and I think Feinberg is mostly successful in examining how various theological commitments impact on how folks from various theological traditions will handle this particular issue.
The one minor drawback is that in my view, more Biblical exegesis was in order in this book than what I saw. Feinberg's general opposition to the greater-good defense was just one example of an objection that seemed to be based more on philosophical argumentation than exegetical demonstration. I have increasingly noticed that comprehensive scholarly works from evangelical authors that seem intended to go beyond the evangelical subculture and gain an audience among non-evangelicals too often downplay the centrality of the authority of Scripture that must continue to define what it means to be an evangelical. It seems to me that an evangelical work on any topic should be unapologetic in presenting a Biblical argument, since the Bible is (or ought to be) our final authority, even though it is not our lone authority. It seems to me that too many books like this one seem to put the Bible on the sideline in order to gain some respectability among circles of the academy that don't take the Bible seriously (meaning that they don't consider it to be particularly authoritative) and thus don't take traditional evangelicals seriously. Well, such an approach strikes me as an unnecessary capitulation, and I fear to some degree that this is what happened with this particular book. While I greatly appreciate the depth with which Feinberg engages non-evangelical scholarship, what this book needs is a melding of systematics and exegesis that results in systematics being better informed by Scripture.
But this little soapbox quibble aside, the book is, I think, a valuable contribution to the field of 'theodicy' that evangelicals will greatly profit from.
