theodicy
the·od·i·cy –noun, plural -cies.
a vindication of the divine attributes, particularly holiness and justice, in establishing or allowing the existence of physical and moral evil.
Meet NT Wright, he is the Anglican Bishop of Durham who has published several dozen books of various scholarly to popular levels. One of his books has the self-explanatory title: Evil And the Justice of God
Now meet Bart Ehrman, he is the chair of the religious studies department at UNC- Chapel Hill, a New Testament scholar and textual critic, and recent convert to agnosticism. He also has a book with a self-explanatory title: God's Problem: How the Bible Fails to Answer Our Most Important Question--Why We SufferNow get this, they recently had an organized blog debate on this topic. Check it out in order:
Bart Ehrman: How the Problem of Pain Ruined My Faith
N.T. Wright: God's Plan to Rescue Us
Bart Ehrman: What About the Actual Suffering?
N.T. Wright: What it Looks Like When God Runs the World
Bart Ehrman: God's Kingdom Has Not Come
N.T. Wright: The Bible Does Answer the Problem--Here's How
(anyone notice they both have books as the background of their head shot?)
3 comments:
Brett, Are you implying that maybe you need to have a pic of you with books behind you....so much head knowledge not much of the heart...maybe a pic of a heart behind you to represent that really what is at the heart of the issue is your concern...all the other stuff is quite superficial...I read the first guy's 1st article and wondered if he really knew God in him saying he was a Christian & now he isn't a Christian...or did he just know about God & doing the "right" stuff..if you know what I mean...heart versus head knowledge...then I wondered what has he gone thru in life that perhaps he thinks that we should have heaven here on earth...perhaps the next article would help me see his world view better but that will have to wait for tomorrow...I'm tired here!! AR
Interesting dialogue! Thanks for passing along the links, Brett.
I finally read all the articles!! I am glad Tom attempted to dig deeper into Bart's personal core issue...I think we sometimes don't want to face the question of how do we add to the suffering of ourselves or others.Also sometimes not wanting to process the pain of disappointments seems to create a bigger mess that we hide,by bringing up unrelated stuff into the picture...I hear this from my married friends all the time...they might argue about something little and stupid again & again until they get to what's really bugging them...then they can move on. It is so hard at times to admit to ourselves much less those we love, our shortcomings and bad decisions.I suspect that Bart has some personal disappointments that he might not have given himself permission to be doggone mad about and process them/wrestle with them...maybe a pile of them. and I wonder if he has ever come to the realization that he has missed the mark(with God's & probably with his own standards)...Bart just seems too emotional when he speaks of "horrors" that there just has to be something eating away at his core...He certainly inspires me to not leave things undone in my life...the nearness of God is (or can be) our strength..Arlene
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