Book Review: God’s Problem
Last night I finished reading God’s Problem by Bart Ehrman. Ehrman is an agnostic (former evangelical) New Testament scholar at UNC- Chapel Hill. Given his background, and since the subtitle is How the Bible Fails to Answer our Most Important Question: Why We Suffer, I knew from the beginning I would disagree with the majority of the text. However, I did try to read the book with as open a mind as I could.
In this book, Ehrman discusses the various “answers” that the Bible gives for the cause of suffering. He separates these different approaches, claiming that the human Biblical authors disagreed on the causes for suffering. For example, he devotes chapters to the Minor Prophets, the OT narratives, and even the book of Job. In each of these chapters, he argues that the books provide conflicting reasons for suffering. By taking these “answers” out of context and distorting them, Ehrman is able to state that the Bible gives him no clear answer to suffering. This is a major issue he has with the Bible, as it is the reason he lost his faith.
Throughout the book, his personal vendetta against Christianity is evident in his writing. Often times, he issues a liberal reading of the text, hoping to shock the reader into questioning Christianity. Also, at the beginning of each chapter, Ehrman gives a shocking modern example of extreme suffering. Examples include the Holocaust, Pol Pot’s Cambodian regime, and WWII battlefield atrocities. These “shock tales” serve no direct purpose to the book, other than attempting to get the reader upset with God for allowing them. Ultimately, this disbelief in and personal vendetta against Christianity reduces this book into an attack on Christianity. Rating: 1 / 5
As an aside, I felt it was important to read this book for two reasons:
1. Ehrman is a good author. He is a very fine scholar, having coauthored the most important book on NT text transmission. Ehrman has a gift to clearly present very technical matters and I respect this, even if I disagree with his conclusions.
2. Many people ask this question. Everyone in a church suffers. Every student in a youth ministry suffers. At one point or another, everyone has wondered why there is suffering. I wanted to see what the secular world (via Ehrman) had to say about suffering. That way, I am better prepared to give a Biblical answer to the question of suffering.
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