The problem of evil has plagued mankind for millennia. Within Christianity, it remains one of the hardest questions to grapple with. It is a tough question in every respect, especially emotionally, and many have turned away from God because they found no satisfaction in the answers Christians had to offer. Many texts written by theologians and philosophers alike attempt to deal with this issue. Many different avenues of thought have been taken. Are any of them successful? Or perhaps the Bible is enough?
Overview
Evil and The Cross begins with an introduction to the idea of evil itself. After all, if we don't get our definitions straight, we will never come to an answer on anything. It then goes on to discuss various secular ways people have used to solve the problem of evil and offers a critique of why they fail. After that, it goes into much more detail in its discussion of various ways Christians have tried to reconcile this problem. Blocher traces the history of how major Christian figures have contributed to the problem of evil, from Thomas Aquinas to Karl Barth. Blocher's conclusion on these solutions is that they are all inadequate due to them not lining up with what scripture has to say.
The final section of the book is the author's "solution". First, it identifies what the Bible says about evil as well as God's character. It then goes into a discussion regarding the coming Kingdom and the effect that has on evil. In the end, I as a reader did not get a very intellectually satisfying solution to the problem of evil, but it seems like that is one of the major points of the book: There is no purely intellectual and logical reason, God's ways in this matter might just be too much for us to comprehend.
My Thoughts
I think this book is probably the best treatment of the problem of evil that I have ever read. The reason is because it is honest. It doesn't arrive at a solution for the sake of arriving at a solution, and it certainly is not afraid of critiquing views that are inadequate or faulty. Another reason is that it tries very hard to remain faithful to scripture, even when scripture is very confusing, or even seemingly contradictory. That might not seem attractive to you, but if you want a Christian answer, you must get to that answer using THE absolute Christian source.
This book is not long, but it is pretty hefty to read, some of the historical survey was pretty dry, but it's still very good information if you really want to dive into this topic.
In the end, I was left without a good answer, but also an answer that would satisfy me as a Christian. I won't spoil it here, you'll have to go read it yourself. The answer is arrived based on scripture, trying as best as it can to not rely on human intellect. I personally think it's as best an answer as a Christian can give because it seems like even God Himself did not reveal the full answer to us. Much like how He never answered Job, but only gave Him a full display of His majesty.
One word of caution is that the solution the author provides relies on a certain eschatology. The coming of the kingdom of God plays a major part in the author's discussion, and based on your view of the second coming, the solution may not work so well for you.
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