Bart D. Ehrman - God's Problem

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.

CONTENTS:
o n e Suffering and a Crisis of Faith 1
t w o Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God: The Classical View of Suffering 21
t h r e e More Sin and More Wrath: The Dominance of the Classical View of Suffering 57
f o u r The Consequences of Sin 91
f i v e The Mystery of the Greater Good: Redemptive Suffering 125
s i x Does Suffering Make Sense? The Books of Job and Ecclesiastes 159
s e v e n God Has the Last Word: Jewish-Christian Apocalypticism 197
e i g h t More Apocalyptic Views: God’s Ultimate Triumph over Evil 229
n i n e Suffering: The Conclusion 261
Notes 279
Scripture Index 291
Index 285
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