Customer Reviews

Suffering and the Goodness of God (Theology in Community)

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Suffering is a universal and perennial problem. No one escapes it, and all are left buffeted and bruised by it. And most people are riddled with many profound questions about suffering. As long as people have been plagued by suffering, they have thought and wondered about it.

As a result, countless gallons of ink have been spilt on this issue. This recent volume looks at the issue through the lens of Christianity. It explores how God and suffering are to be understood in light of biblical revelation. Given that so much has already been written on the subject, it is hard to expect anything radically new or different to appear here.

But the ten essays presented here by eight evangelical authors make for a nice overview of the biblical discussion of the issue. Many similar sorts of things have been written before, but this book offers a nice collection of articles dealing with the main themes.

Thus there are several chapters on how the Old Testament addresses the problem; how the New Testament treats this issue, how the bible story line as a whole deals with it; the theological and philosophical problem of evil; and other aspects to the debate.

Walter Kaiser's two chapters on how suffering is handled in the Old Testament are nicely presented. He spends time on the main documents, such as the Book of Job, the Wisdom literature, Lamentations and the lament psalms, and the story of Joseph.

He also looks at eight types of suffering found in the Old Testament. Of course there is retributive suffering, that is, reaping what one sows. It is "one of the fundamental principles by which God governs the world". Choices have consequences, and bad choices (sin) invariably meet with negative consequences.

Educational or disciplinary suffering is also clearly taught in the Hebrew Scriptures. That God can use hardships and trials to perfect us, to mould our character, and make us more like him, is a common theme of both Testaments.

The difficult question of the problem of evil is covered by John Frame, Writing as he does from a strongly Reformed perspective, he emphasises the sovereignty of God in all this. But he looks at how God can be seen as in control of all things, while not being the author of evil.

Thus Frame looks at differing types of evil, different ways to understand God's will, and how a good God can use evil for good ends. In this discussion broader questions of how human freedom and divine sovereignty can be reconciled are also explored. Readers may not agree with all the arguments presented here, but much food for thought is offered.

Perhaps the highlight of the book is the concluding chapter by John Feinberg. Feinberg has written extensively on the problem of evil and suffering. His two masters' theses, and his doctoral dissertation, were all on these topics. But it was personal tragedy in his own life that really made this become real to him. His wife - and potentially his children - carries a degenerative, fatal disease, which he has had to work through and cope with for many years now.

Such personal encounters with suffering in many ways supplement but go beyond the academic ruminations about the topic. Indeed, Feinberg sees that there is the theological and philosophical approach to suffering which is necessary, but there is also a pastoral approach.

Often when people are in the midst of suffering it is the pastoral approach which is most needed. Being there to comfort and express love may often be more important than just providing theological answers to all the `why' questions.

In this very down-to-earth chapter Feinberg tells us what is not helpful as we seek to comfort those in pain, and what is helpful. But he does not leave out rational argumentation altogether. For example, he responds to the charge that God may appear to be unjust in allowing some to suffer more than others:

"Grace is unmerited favor. That means you get something good that you don't deserve. But if I don't merit it at all, it can't be unjust that my neighbor gets more grace than I do. In fact, God isn't obligated to treat us with any kind of grace. That's why it is grace and not justice."

All in all this is a helpful one-volume look at the biblical discussion of suffering and evil. Those already well-read on this topic will not find much new or different material here. But it is a nice arrangement of the main concerns as addressed by Scripture. For those wanting a good volume which covers most of the bases, this is a good place to begin.

I am using it for my seminary thesis. It is the best resource I have found. The chapters are written by different authors who give theological and personal accounts of how God's goodness prevails, despite the trauma they have endured. If I could, I would give this book 100 stars.

This is a book that I was especially looking forward to reviewing. As a pastor I deal often with people who are in trouble. In 2008 my family faced trouble. I lost my only brother to brain cancer. He was only forty-two years of age. Circumstances such as this often cause the strongest of Christians to question God's goodness. Here is an honest-to-goodness attempt to tackle the issue Biblically, philosophically, emotionally, and coherently. I applaud the motivations.
The contributing writers write out of their theological knowledge, their philosophical knowledge, and their experience of heartache and suffering. They have done their job well.
Honestly, I did not anticipate the book being very good, though I had looked forward to reading and reviewing it. Why? It seemed dry at the first. Oh, yeah? Well, what do you expect from theology? I expect something to hold my interest. That it did. The apparent dryness did not last long. I was quickly involved in reading the Biblical and theological arguments addressing God's goodness, sovereign wisdom, and how suffering is related to them. I was not disappointed. The writers hold that God is indeed sovereign, and that nothing is out of His control. I especially liked how the writers took the issue of suffering and evil and essentially walked us through the Biblical data to find a Biblical theology of suffering and God's goodness. Both the Old and New Testaments speak to this subject. In the end, we are given the assurance that all will be well and suffering shall cease. It's the old, old story, but it surely is sweet to the suffering soul.
John Frame speaks both Biblically and philosophically concerning the subject. He did his job very well, too. While I may not agree with his approach and arguments relating to some of the issue, I was gratified to find that he and I agree that God has a purpose in ordaining evil/suffering. God intends the greater good of His eternal exaltation through suffering. I believe this is what makes the Christians' worldview more coherent than others: no other worldview can present suffering in quite the light that Christianity does.
We are given a chapter relating to oppression, and I must say that it is something that we must face today. Oppression is real. The Scriptures address it. It is in many cases because of failure on the part of the church that oppression has such a strong hold in the world today. Thankfully, we have Biblical instructions about addressing it. May God help us to do so.
The final two chapters were very powerful in their context. I was beginning to feat that the book would fail to bring theology to its logical conclusion: practice. I was not disappointed. There was much practical good in these two chapters. One writer presents poetry that helped him during his battle with cancer. The other tells us of his struggle with suffering and the sovereign goodness of God. It is good to know that religious leaders have honest doubts, struggles, and issues with anger. Suffering simply is not easy. This is candidly shared with the reader. In the end, we learn that we can see God's wisdom and goodness if we but look for it. At the same time, however, we learn that we must be careful in how we seek to comfort those who are suffering. The lines that speak to us about that are worth the price of the book.
This book is quality through and through. It is a highly recommended read and belongs in the library of pastors as well as theologians. In fact, anyone who seeks to minister to troubled people should read this book. I cannot recommend it enough.

This book is awesome!! If you want to know what the scholars thing about why there is evil in the world. I took a class under one of the editors (Dr. Morgan) and he is a great mind to study under. It is an easy read; you don't have to have a dictionary sitting next to you as you read it!

Slow shipping though. Amazon had to ship it from an hour away from I lived and it took a week to get here!

The book came in a stunning new like condition :)
The pages were untouched by highlighter, pen, or finger markings.
No page was bent, tore, lose, and the spine had a freshly new tight binding!

Shiping was right on time, as promposed. The book was helded tightly secured, fully unharmed, and clean!