Bart Ehrman’s new book is entitled God’s Problem: How the Bible Fails to Answer Our Most Important Question—Why We Suffer and was just published yesterday. Ehrman’s last book, Misquoting Jesus: The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why dealt with Ehrman’s problems with the texts of the New Testament. Because of these texts, Ehrman was forced to conclude that the New Testament was not the Word of God (You can see my complete, chapter by chapter review of this book here).
I can’t wait to get my hands on this book. From an excerpt available on NPR’s website, Ehrman writes:
The problem of suffering became for me the problem of faith. After many years of grappling with the problem, trying to explain it, thinking through the explanations that others have offered—some of them pat answers charming for their simplicity, others highly sophisticated and nuanced reflections of serious philosophers and theologians—after thinking about the alleged answers and continuing to wrestle with the problem, about nine or ten years ago I finally admitted defeat, came to realize that I could no longer believe in the God of my tradition, and acknowledged that I was an agnostic: I don’t “know” if there is a God; but I think that if there is one, he certainly isn’t the one proclaimed by the Judeo-Christian tradition, the one who is actively and powerfully involved in this world. And so I stopped going to church.
It’s going to be an interesting read, especially because in Misquoting Jesus Ehrman claims that his agnosticism was the result of his work as a textual critic, not because of theodicy. I wonder which one it really was?
Ehrman was featured yesterday on Fresh Air with my girl Terry Gross. You can listen to the interview, which includes an excerpt from the new book, here. The interview is very interesting. I don’t think that Ehrman’s caricature of Christianity’s view of suffering as “redemptive” is an accurate statement. Theologians from Guiness to Wright to Volf have all written books on how a “redemptive” view of suffering does not explain suffering. I’ll reserve a full critique of Ehrman’s view for after I read the book, but if this is the only angle he takes on Christian’s view of suffering, then he not telling the whole story.
20 February 2008 at 2.30 pm
Ehrman is a very interesting guy, because clearly he has “lost” his faith and yet his book on the “Davinci Code,” destroyed Dan Brown and was brilliant. Odd.
20 February 2008 at 2.38 pm
He actually does a lecture on the DaVinci Code with Richard Hays, which is interesting on multiple levels: Hays is conservative and teaches at Duke while Ehrman is liberal and teaches at UNC. The lecture is available on iTunesU in the Duke Divinity School section if you are interested.
The point in bringing that up is that it is interesting, as you point out, the Ehrman is the liberal scholar when it comes to these issues (along with Elaine Pagels), yet completely tears Brown apart. That goes to show just how poorly researched Brown’s book was.
20 February 2008 at 2.51 pm
Sooo I have these friend’s that went to a Hebrew Roots Bible study at a certain giant church here in Grand Rapids and ended up converting to Judaism. To convert they had to stand up and renounce Jesus. That story has always been so interesting to me because I could not stop thinking about how much I would miss Jesus.
My point I guess is that whenever I read something from Ehrman I think there is a part of him underneath it who misses Jesus.
20 February 2008 at 4.11 pm
Getting rid of God doesn’t solve the problem of evil. You still have evil but now you’re facing it without God. The title of his book is ironic.
20 February 2008 at 4.22 pm
Meade: The reviewer from Publisher’s Weekly made a similar claim about the title: namely, that Ehrman does not show that the problem is God’s.
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.
20 February 2008 at 10.18 pm
I caught part of that interview in the car yesterday. Thanks for the link, now I can hear the parts I missed.
21 February 2008 at 3.42 pm
The Secular-Humanists, deconstructionalists, and theological revisionists cannot erase the word of God. Though they may try, their attempt will always be in vain. The Israelites, and later Christ, have fulfilled God’s prophecies. Israel is strong now, and as prophecy dictates, the anti-Christ will soon emerge. Get ready for a wild ride peeps.
21 February 2008 at 4.38 pm
johnnypeepers: Jack Van Impe would be proud.
21 February 2008 at 7.45 pm
I heard that one too. I thought it was an interesting and thought-provoking interview but that Ehrlman’s main beef was with the God in his head that he had already claimed to have rejected. He seemed to be dealing with the ‘problem’ by only arguing with the theodicy of the Christianity he practices. His characterization of God was entirely too narrow and ignored other possibilities (to say nothing of Ecclesiates). Obviously, any theological or philosophical argument is personal in nature but Ehrlman seems to be working out his personal struggle more here than he is intellectually.