God's Problem

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itt r i
here Is God Now?
In God's Problem, the New York Times bestselling author of Misquoting Jesus challenges the contradictory biblical explanations for why an all-poweriul God allows us to suffer.
Praise for God's Problem:
"[God's Problem is a] serious inquiry . . . Ehrman pursues it with an energy and goodwill that invite further conversation with sympathetic and unsympathetic readers alike." '
—STANLEY FISH in the New York Times
"No one has so eloquently told the history of the biblical God's absences and traditional excuses as Ehrman."
—WILLIS BARNSTONE, author of The Other Bible
"God's Problem is a wonderful book, powerfiil in its questions and bold in its answers. Believers will be met on their own terms and drawn into important questions; doubters will enjoy a smart and friendly tour of some key ideas, from the enlightening perspective of an author who long believed."
—JENNIFER MICHAEL HECHT, author of Doubt: A History and The Happiness Myth
"Though I have come... Tovább

Fülszöveg

itt r i
here Is God Now?
In God's Problem, the New York Times bestselling author of Misquoting Jesus challenges the contradictory biblical explanations for why an all-poweriul God allows us to suffer.
Praise for God's Problem:
"[God's Problem is a] serious inquiry . . . Ehrman pursues it with an energy and goodwill that invite further conversation with sympathetic and unsympathetic readers alike." '
—STANLEY FISH in the New York Times
"No one has so eloquently told the history of the biblical God's absences and traditional excuses as Ehrman."
—WILLIS BARNSTONE, author of The Other Bible
"God's Problem is a wonderful book, powerfiil in its questions and bold in its answers. Believers will be met on their own terms and drawn into important questions; doubters will enjoy a smart and friendly tour of some key ideas, from the enlightening perspective of an author who long believed."
—JENNIFER MICHAEL HECHT, author of Doubt: A History and The Happiness Myth
"Though I have come to a different conclusion, I believe this riveting book should be read by all people of faith. More than anything it shows why our understanding of God must either change or die."
—JOHN SHELBY SPONG, author of Jesus for the Non-Religious
¦'Ehrman has done it again. He addresses one of the most compelling issues in all of human experience, and he has done so with clarity and insight. You may be surprised, you may be troubled, but you will certainly be challenged and moved by this book."
—MARVIN MEYER, author of Judas
"My ultimate goal in this book is to examine the biblical responses to suffering, to see what they are, to assess how they might be useful for thinking people trying to get a handle on the reality of suffering either in their own lives or in the lives of others, and to evaluate their adequacy in light of the realities of our world. What comes as a surprise to many readers of the Bible is that some of these answers are not what they would expect, and that some of the answers stand at odds with one another."—from God's Problem
'^i tt 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
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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.
¦g^^JW^ PP BART D. EHRMAN is iH^Sifljjjljk ^^ ; the author of more than ^^B^^HE , 11 twenty books, including the ^^B^^Ufiji^ !* " , , New York Times bestselling
Misquoting Jesus. Ehrman P ^ • is the James A. Gray
iW^fKKf Distinguished Professor
JI^^P of Religious Studies at
irS^m the University of North
Carolina, Chapel Hill, and is a leading authority on the early Church and the life of Jesus. He has been featured in Time and has appeared on NBC's Dateline, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, CNN, The History Channel, major NPR shows, and other top media outlets. He lives in Durham, North Carolina.
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