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

by Bart D. Ehrman (Author)
Key Phrases: poetic dialogues, New Testament, Hebrew Bible, Kingdom of God (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
In this sometimes provocative, often pedantic memoir of his own attempts to answer the great theological question about the persistence of evil in the world, Ehrman, a UNC–Chapel Hill religion professor, refuses to accept the standard theological answers. Through close readings of every section of the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament, he discovers that the Bible offers numerous answers that are often contradictory. The prophets think God sends pain and suffering as a punishment for sin and also that human beings who oppress others create such misery; the writers who tell the Jesus story and the Joseph stories think God works through suffering to achieve redemptive purposes; the writers of Job view pain as God's test; and the writers of Job and Ecclesiastes conclude that we simply cannot know why we suffer. In the end, frustrated that the Bible offers such a range of opposing answers, Ehrman gives up on his Christian faith and fashions a peculiarly utilitarian solution to suffering and evil in the world: first, make this life as pleasing to ourselves as we can and then make it pleasing to others. Although Ehrman's readings of the biblical texts are instructive, he fails to convince readers that these are indeed God's problems, and he fails to advance the conversation any further than it's already come. (Mar.)
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From Booklist
The subtitle seems off the mark. Isn’t Why are we here? our most important question? But quibble, quibble. Why is there evil?—a question about the problem of pain so closely related to Why do we suffer? that evangelical Christian–turned agnostic Ehrman operatively seems to prefer it—is indeed one of the Bible’s principal preoccupations. Ehrman rejects three biblical answers to it and approves a fourth before settling on ethical pragmatism (“alleviate suffering wherever possible”), with or without Christianity. The three inadequate answers are that suffering is punishment for sin, that individual suffering is necessary for the greater good, and that suffering presages the imminent triumph of good over evil (as in the perhaps most prevalent understanding of Christ’s Second Coming). Ehrman rejects those positions essentially because they don’t fit the concept of God as loving and omnipotent. He countenances the answer of Ecclesiastes, that suffering is inexplicable, but maintains that it negates God’s omniscience and is perhaps more cogent for nonbelievers. Ehrman’s clarity, simplicity, and congeniality help make this a superb introduction to its subject. --Ray Olson

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: HarperOne; 1st Printing edition (February 19, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0061173975
• ISBN-13: 978-0061173974
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (134 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #17,578 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

109 of 118 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Plug For The Book Of Ecclesiastes, March 2, 2008

By	The Spinozanator (Waco, Texas) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

I was subjected (through age 20) to more than my share of fundamentalist preaching, yet values at home were more those of inquiry and evidence toward the world in general. Ehrman's approach to the Bible is more to my liking than reiteration of a dogma I've already heard, documented by passages of scripture preselected to prove that certain view. His forte is presenting the rest of the story. In any Christian book store you will find shelves full of books discussing the problem of suffering, but you will not likely find another one like this one.

In "God's Problem" Ehrman presents the Bible's version (and a few versions from various philosophers and email correspondents) of why God allows - even mandates - suffering. With a God who is supposed to be all knowing, all powerful, yet completely loving and benevolent to His creation, why are there genocides, natural disasters, wars, epidemics, and the usual suffering involved in living and dying. Interestingly, believers are statistically no more exempt from disasters than society's many "cheaters." One only needs to look around to find that evil people often thrive and the righteous often suffer. How can this be?

The problem bothered Ehrman continually for decades, as he relates in this very personal book. He had a minor epiphany during his seminary training when an honest analysis of the Bible caused him to stop taking the Bible so literally. But that wasn't the insight that caused him to lose his faith. It was the problem with suffering that did it, although he admits "I went kicking and screaming."

Scattered throughout the Bible are the justifications for suffering. The first (and main) rationale in the Old Testament is God's punishment for sin, starting right out with Adam and Eve. God makes His people suffer when they don't obey and not just a little slap on the wrist. The major and minor prophets - and most of the other books - spend a lot of time documenting droughts, pestilence, war, famine, and destruction. God is punishing His people for disobedience.

The second rationale for suffering from the Old Testament is also because of sin, but due to man's inhumanity to man - caused by man's sinful nature. Good behavior naturally produces good consequences; cavorting and sinful behavior natually causes bad consequences, but with plenty of collateral damage. God doesn't inflict this one personally, but he allows it to happen, despite many prayers and supplications to let this cup pass from our hands.

The third rationale - for some biblical authors suffering has a positive and redemptive aspect to it - suffering builds character. Sometimes God brings good out of evil such as in the compelling story of Joseph who is sold into slavery by his jealous brothers. At the end of Genesis, through Joseph's suffering, God saves His people.

The fourth rationale - suffering can be inflicted by God as a test of your faith. Job is the prime example of this where Satan and God have a disagreement as to whether or not Job can keep his faith in the event of personal catastrophies. This one requires a little elaboration. God allowed multiple rounds of suffering. Satan eventually destroyed all Job's property, killed his 10 children, sent three "friends" over to relentlessly tell Job how sinful he had been - therefore asking for these tragedies; then Satan afflicted him with torturously painful sores all over his body - all over a bet. As God himself acknowledged, Job was innocent and didn't deserve the treatment, but rebuked Job when Job dared to question Him. In the end, God rewarded Job's faithfulness by restoring what Job had lost, including seven new children. Try that with any parent who has ever lost a child and see how far you get.

The fifth rationale, the apocalyptic approach, was popular during Jesus's day, and in fact, Jesus and John the Baptist were both cut from this mold. Suffering is caused by the forces of evil and God is not responsible. When the end comes, the tables will turn, God will make things right, and the meek will inherit the earth.

Ehrman doesn't buy any of these arguments, nor do it. The Bible is a magnificent document of literature as told by iron age people trying their best to keep their culture together. They lived in a poor country that happened to be on a major trade route between east and west. They were easy pickings as a series of more powerful nations conquered them, leaving them little down time from suffering. Ehrman was bothered by the inequities associated with the suffering God allowed (or caused) his chosen people to endure for about 20 years before he wrote this book. When he was 30, he taught a seminar on the subject, started thinking about writing a book on the subject, but didn't think he was ready. Now, 20 years later, he still doesn't think he was ready, but figured he would be not be ready at 70 either, so he may as well do it now.

One book in the Bible does provide a view of suffering that is acceptable to Ehrman - that put forth in the book of Ecclesiastes: bad things happen but life brings good things. The solution to life is to enjoy it while you can while doing all the good you can because it will soon be over. And that's all there is.

46 of 50 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good But Incomplete, June 2, 2008

By	Kevin Currie-Knight "PhD Student in Education" (Newark, Delaware) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

First, it must be said that this book is slightly mistitled. The problem is the subtitle, which tells us that this will be a book about "how the Bible fails to answer our most important question." Actually, the entire book is about exploring the various (and multifarious) answers the bible gives in answer to why suffering occurs. Instead, the subtitle should read something more like, "How the bible fails to RESOLVE our most important problem." That would be more accurate.

Ehrman used to be a Christian, he tells us. He used to aspire to be in the ministry. What undid that, he says, is this very question; each time he tried to decipher why an almighty and all powerful god would allow suffering in the world, he came away deeply unsatisfied. It is a question that has been around for ages: from Liebniz to Lewis and Chesterton (or, if you are an atheist like myself, Hume and Flew).

In the end, it is not that Ehrman cannot find answers in the bible to this quesiton. There are many varied answers! Rather, none of them is satisfying to Ehrman. This book goes through all of the bible's (old and new testament) answers to the problem of suffering. Do we suffer as penalty for our sins Do we suffer because all bad things somehow lead to good (ours or others)? Do we suffer simply because God wants to test our faith? Or because God will make things right in the afterlife?

These answers - all of them in various parts of the bible - are explored. All of them, respectfully, are found wanting. Ehrman is not a Christian, but is far from exercising the beligerence and acerbity of Dawkins and Harris. He says in his preface, after noting that his wife is Christian and that the two of them attend church together, that he is not intending to "deconvert" anyone to his own agnosticism. He is simply explaining to many views of suffering and why, in the end, he sees all of them as unpalatable.

One criticism that I have is that while Ehrman exhaustively goes through the views of suffering that are in the bible, he devotes only a final summative chapter to views of theologians attempting themselves to make sense of this problem. When one is writing about a question that has captured the imaginations of as many thinkers as this one, one should find it hard to do so without grappling with their thkoughts. Much has been written on this vexing question since the bible, and it would have been nice for Ehrman to deal as much with the post-biblical ruminations as those appearing in the bible. (That is, in fact, what I was expecting.)

To conclude, there is another slight misnomer about this book, though it is a small one. In the end, Ehrman actually does agree with ONE of the Bible's interpretations of why we suffer. Not wanting to give a 'spoiler,' I will not divulge which one, but I will only say that it is the one that would make most sense to a non-believer that "black sheep" book that seems more secular than religious (Christians may already know to which book I am referring.)

All in all, this is a decent book, and it is good to see Ehrman writing on so personal a subject - the subject that led to his, and doubtless many others,' abandonment of Christianity. I hope, though, that there will be a 'sequel' dealing with subsequent theologians attempts to deal with the question of evil.

229 of 267 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Faith vs. Reason, February 19, 2008

By	IndyCopperTop (Indianapolis, IN) - See all my reviews

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.