Bart D. Ehrman
Hardcover | Pages: 304 pages Rating: 3.92 | 4996 Users | 343 Reviews
List Epithetical Books God's Problem: How the Bible Fails to Answer Our Most Important Question - Why We Suffer
| Title | : | God's Problem: How the Bible Fails to Answer Our Most Important Question - Why We Suffer |
| Author | : | Bart D. Ehrman |
| Book Format | : | Hardcover |
| Book Edition | : | Anniversary Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 304 pages |
| Published | : | February 19th 2008 by HarperOne |
| Categories | : | Religion. Nonfiction. Philosophy. Christianity. Atheism. Theology. History |
Interpretation In Pursuance Of Books God's Problem: How the Bible Fails to Answer Our Most Important Question - Why We Suffer
In times of questioning and despair, people often quote the Bible to provide answers. Surprisingly, though, the Bible does not have one answer but many "answers" that often contradict one another. Consider these competing explanations for suffering put forth by various biblical writers:The prophets: suffering is a punishment for sin
The book of Job, which offers two different answers: suffering is a test, and you will be rewarded later for passing it; and suffering is beyond comprehension, since we are just human beings and God, after all, is God
Ecclesiastes: suffering is the nature of things, so just accept it
All apocalyptic texts in both the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament: God will eventually make right all that is wrong with the world
For renowned Bible scholar Bart Ehrman, the question of why there is so much suffering in the world is more than a haunting thought. Ehrman's inability to reconcile the claims of faith with the facts of real life led the former pastor of the Princeton Baptist Church to reject Christianity.
In God's Problem, Ehrman discusses his personal anguish upon discovering the Bible's contradictory explanations for suffering and invites all people of faith—or no faith—to confront their deepest questions about how God engages the world and each of us.
Identify Books Supposing God's Problem: How the Bible Fails to Answer Our Most Important Question - Why We Suffer
| Original Title: | God's Problem: How the Bible Fails to Answer Our Most Important Question—Why We Suffer |
| ISBN: | 0061173975 (ISBN13: 9780061173974) |
| Edition Language: | English |
Rating Epithetical Books God's Problem: How the Bible Fails to Answer Our Most Important Question - Why We Suffer
Ratings: 3.92 From 4996 Users | 343 ReviewsWeigh Up Epithetical Books God's Problem: How the Bible Fails to Answer Our Most Important Question - Why We Suffer
Now that I have finished reading God's Problem, I see that the entire work serves as an apology for why Bart Ehrman can no longer believe in the Christian faith. Ehrman, a fundamentalist born-again Christian, feels hurt and betrayed that the Bible is contradictory. Instead of seeing scripture as a collection of different people's attempts to make sense of God, (which is how I like to look at it), he points out its failure to present a cohesive answer to the question of why suffering exists. HeBart Ehrman very clearly knows biblical scripture and is very adept at describing and explaining the various biblical answers for suffering. However, I found the book disorganized and poorly argued for a topic that should be relatively easy to dissect and present for someone so well versed. Ive heard Ehrman debate theological views of suffering and was always impressed, but his book left me wanting more.
Ehrman has written a string of highly readable and engaging books in the popular mode which present the state of current biblical scholarship, or rather critical biblical scholarship as it exists outside evangelical or traditional circles. He as done so again but with the twist that it is through the lens of what philosophers call the problem of evil, namely how can it be that a morally perfect and almighty being should allow evil and suffering. Ehrman has precious little patience for the
If you were creating a universe, would you create it without suffering?If you did, people would need neither intelligence nor compassion. And we wouldn't develop it. People for whom everything always goes their way tend to become insensitive and entitled. The most recent Supreme Court appointee is a case in point. Commonly, people who have suffered are kind and generous.(With nothing to strive for or avoid, life likely could never have developed.)Also, if everything were perfect all the time, we
Discusses the various, sometimes contradictory, ways in which the Bible explains the existence and meaning of suffering. The author, no longer a believer, explores the reasons behind these explanations being formulated in their own time and evaluates their (in)adequacies generally and for thinking people today. His material on apocalyptic explanations and figures, including Jesus and Paul, was especially interesting to me.
I'm not religious, but I've been interested in Biblical archeology and history for a while (I even took a semester in college where I got to translate passages from the New Testament from Greek into English, which was fun). I'd previously read Ehrman's Lost Christianities and thought it was great, so I finally got around to another book by him.God's Problem is a lot more personal a book than I was expecting from the author, as it details some of the reasoning behind his loss of faith (he had
This book is well written, no doubt there. Ehrman has a knack for writing to the man on the street. As such this book reads fast and smooth, much like his Misquoting Jesus. Thus, my low ranking is due to the content of the book, the cogency of the argumentation. This book is so chalk full of errors that the measly 10,000 characters goodreads gives isnt enough. I could use 100,000 characters.God's problem is that suffering exists and the Bible can't explain it. Ehrman tries to show this by noting
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