God's Problem

A little book report on Bart Ehrman's exploration of theodicy called "God's Problem":

Ehrman, a textual scholar who earned his chops at Moody, then Wheaton, and finally Princeton, says his faith was not derailed by Bible mistakes but by the problem of God and evil (theodicy). He just finally could not square a world of continuous suffering and injustice with a God who is supposed to be just and good.

Late in the book he admits to resonating most with the author of the Hebrew book Ecclesiastes. He takes from this writer the idea that there is nothing after this life so eat, drink, and be merry. Ehrman later appends this idea with a call to seeking social justice in this world. So while you're having the best time you can, be sure and carve out some time for good works - to alleviate some of the pain around you.

From page 200 of the book, here are the rudiments of the Biblical ideas explaining God's purpose for this imperfect world of suffering:

1) it is the result of and punishment for sin and disobedience;
2) it is actually caused by humans;
3) it is redemptive;
4) it is a test of faithfulness;
5) it is a mystery; and/or
6) it is beyond our comprehension.

These explanations are not good enough for Ehrman, thus he abandons the ship of faith.

His students often tell him the reason for suffering is because we must have "free will" in order to not just be robots. Ehrman doesn't buy this reasoning. To him, God simply, in the end, seems to be cruel and barbaric, if this is the method behind his madness.

Ehrman is a good read because he looks at the Bible and theology with perhaps extreme objectivity. But the problem of God and evil does not have to derail one's faith. Sometimes I get the feeling from Ehrman that he is burned out. In much knowledge is much grief.

In the end, the reason for evil is beyond comprehension. In fact, it is part of the reason to have faith, if we have faith at all. Faith sees beyond the present ordeal that is life. God may seem unreasonable, but Job says, "Though God slay me, yet I will trust him." Can good come out of evil? We'd better hope it does, because this world is indeed evil. And like the author of Ecclesiastes, it is vexing and full of vanity. It makes no sense.

Toward the end of the book, Ehrman recalls the famous chapters, in Dostoevsky's The Brother's Karamizov, around a chapter called "The Grand Inquisitor." Essentially, the brother Ivan makes an argument much like Ehrman's: he says that even if this evil, sucking world were to be fixed by God, he couldn't bring himself to side with a God like that.

The picture of this is provided by the father of geometry, Euclid (300 BC). Euclid theorized that two parallel lines, in infinity, can never meet precisely because they are parallel. Ivan points out that there are geometers who believe, in finite space, that they can meet. God could indeed fix things. For Ivan, that isn't enough. God shouldn't have allowed evil in the first place. So Ehrman's book doesn't solve the problem of theodicy, though it does bring some light to the matter. Ehrman's decision to abandon faith based on this problem, though, is not much clarified.

In Job's case, Job is reconciled to this nonsensical evil being part and parcel of the present paradigm. From the perspective of infinity, this 15 billion year old world is just a blip on the screen. God is just, the Bible tells us. No matter how sordid this world can be, it also witnesses good and even majesty. In this cauldron of evil, we still taste joy and beauty and see courage and virtue. And one would even expect, in a coming age, that the tears, rage, and war will be forgotten. God's problem is fixed by the savior - in every way. That is also hope where there is no hope.

Ehrman is staring into the abyss of the post-modern predicament we are headed toward. In that cauldron of difficulties and conundrums, we may well understand God in a new way. But theologians should pay attention to Ehrman, because there they will hear the existential questions of humankind abandoning certainty. And when we abandon certainty, we are not abandoning God, necessarily. We can: it is a choice. But it is also in that very uncertainty that we can find him again, and appreciate him the more.