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God's Problem: How the Bible Fails to Answer Our Most Important Question--Why We Suffer | 
 enlarge | Author: Bart D. Ehrman
Publisher: HarperOne
Category: Book
List Price: $25.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  89 reviews
Sales Rank: 5379
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 304
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.1
ISBN: 0061173975
Dewey Decimal Number: 231.8
EAN: 9780061173974
ASIN: 0061173975
Publication Date: March 1, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
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.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 84 more reviews...
 Does Suffering Make Sense? July 4, 2008
In God's Problem the author surveys the Biblical speculations on suffering and concludes they fail to satisfy; that they don't make sense. It's true that suffering often has no good reason to justify it. That's one of the things that is so evil about Evil, it often makes no sense. Should we expect it to? Not always. Sensless suffering is a weapon in the hands of the Evil One that destroys hope. Its weakness is it demonstrates how evil evil really is. Often what the Bible does not say it inspires. The Bible tells me of the man who returned from the dead to give me that hope. But, as pointed out by other reviewers, this book is a very good introduction to the subject. It is brave of the author to publish this book.
What I Expected June 30, 2008
It's a good discussion on suffering in the Bible. I learned a lot and it was definitely worth my time. There are some sections that could have been condensed so the book would have been 2/3 the number of pages. I did a lot of skimming.
Quite Illuminating June 30, 2008
Being an armchair biblical researcher, I thoroughly enjoyed Mr. Ehrman's treatise on human suffering, although strictly on an intellectual level. I learned many things about the bible (and of course certain passages specifically) I did not know. Mr. Ehrman's writing is evocative, concise, lucid and quite rational. Yet I can't help but offer the following: human suffering in all its cold and heartless manifestations can't be understood from a rational, scientific, intellectual point of view. After all, an awful lot of atrocities are the result of some (albeit abhorrent) rationalization. A very good, historical/intellectual read.
 I cannot believe he missed it June 30, 2008
0 out of 6 found this review helpful
It is truly amazing to me how the author can study the entire Bible and not come up with the key to why we suffer. Well here is a start. The human race's first parents, Adam and Eve, were created to live in paradise with God and his holy angels forever. However, through human free will and the tempting of the serpent, the forbidden fruit was eaten. Thus the first sin, which was human pride(The serpent says that if you eat the fruit you can be like god)So, there it is. As long as sin exists there will be suffering in this life. Remember as St. Augustine says in the City of God, in the earthly city we have no lasting home. We have been exiled here as a result of original sin. But wait there's more. In the fullness of time God sent his only begotten Son to Jesus to suffer and to die on the wood of the Holy Cross as a sacrifice for our sins. And now remember that Jesus says in the Gospel of John that the servant is not greater than the master. As the servants, why should expect the same.Our road is the road that Jesus traveled to calvary.We must bear the crosses of this life and offer up our sufferings to God. It is often said that Jesus did not come to end suffering but to give it meaning. Honestly read the lives of the great saints Most went through tremendous suffering, physical, mental, and spiritual in their lives. Padre Pio was termed "the bleeding friar" because of his five wounds. Many saints died very you because of their infirmities.And finally I will say this. NO CROSS NO CROWN! And remember that before Easter Sunday comes the crucifixion. Suffering and crosses born patiently are the very conditions upon which we reach eternal life. And finally people please look at a crucifix. Contemplate the mystery of God's love for you. Do not become angry and bitter. Carry you daily crosses with joy!If I have reached just one of you this day well then, praise be Jesus Christ!
Recommended Books:
"A Dialogue of Comfort Against Tribulation" -St. Thomas More
"No Cross No Crown" -William Penn
Oh and any of the great spiritual works of St.Augustine, St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Catherine of Sienna, St. Therese and much more. Really the mystery of suffering is what Catholic theology is all about!
Answer is simple June 29, 2008
0 out of 5 found this review helpful
Being famous, like being rich, is a dangerous precipice. Bart Ehrman is showing increased self-centrism as he ages.
His prior academic courses have weighted all the fragmented [and at times silly] texts not included in the Bible as equal to accepted text. Ehrman cleverly danced off the subject of responsibility for the validity of his subject matter by argument of academic exploration.
So this one-man interpreter of all things scriptural now announces that God has a problem. You notice right off that it's the Christian God, not Allah. Muslim's would be a bit less Christian in their reaction to such a title. Ehrman wallows in "fact-finding" half-truths. He constantly chooses his own views over God's. Pretty smart guy but way too full of himself. Another voice of Satan.
The answer to Ehrman's question about suffering is as simple as Exodus: God has no other choice with the "stiff-necked people" to whom He has given the gift of free will. He burns off our iniquities by making us face our lies through suffering [and the observation of those who suffer]. It is an effective tool...like a big red stop sign: if you continue to do this, you will [eventually] suffer. The phrase "no atheists in fox-holes" didn't come of thin air.
Bart, you are running out of time, and your allegations are getting more embittered. I hope you change. Christ died for you as well, so I pray that God will grant you enough life experience that you can be saved.
In God's Army or not...your choice. God Bless you and your family.
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