Harper Academic

God's Problem

How the Bible Fails to Answer Our Most Important Question--Why We Suffer

by Bart D. Ehrman

On Sale: 02/24/2009

Price: $20.99

God's Problem

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God's Problem

How the Bible Fails to Answer Our Most Important Question--Why We Suffer

by Bart D. Ehrman

On Sale: 02/24/2009

Format:

Price: $20.99

About the Book

War, disease, natural disasters, abuse, pain, and death – why do we suffer? And if God is loving, all-powerful, and in control, why doesn’t he make it all stop? Surprisingly, the Bible does not have a single answer to these questions.

In God’s Problem, Bart Ehrman, the New York Times bestselling author of Misquoting Jesus, discusses his personal anguish following his discovery that the Bible only provides incoherent and conflicting reasons for human suffering. According to the prophets, suffering is a punishment for sin. Apocalyptic texts promise that God will eventually make all things right. And the Book of Job provides two explanations for suffering: it is both a test, and something beyond comprehension.

While writing this book, Ehrman became so disillusioned by what he discovered, he actually lost his faith.

Bart D. Ehrman chairs the department of religious studies at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. A leading authority on the early Church and the life of Jesus, he has been featured in Time and has appeared on Dateline NBC, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, CNN, the History Channel, major NPR shows, and other top media outlets. He is the author of twenty books and lives in Durham, N.C.

“[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. This book neither trivializes its subject nor demonizes those who have a different view of it which is more than can be said for the efforts of those fashionable atheist writers whose major form of argument would seem to be ridicule.”

- Stanley Fish in the New York Times

Critical Praise

“Ehrman’s clarity, simplicity, and congeniality help make this a superb introduction to its subject.” — Booklist

“Ehrman, a prolific and popular author, has put his journey into words in a new book “God’s Problem. ...Ehrman actually ends “God’s Problem” on an upbeat note, a kind of call to arms for people to be good--to themselves and to others...” — San Diego Tribune

“[An] entrapped invocation of a God who is not believed in, but is nonetheless despised, is what gives the book a rough power. …[Ehrman] is a lucid expositor…” — The New Yorker

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Product Details

  • ISBN: 9780061173929
  • ISBN 10: 0061173924
  • Imprint: HarperOne
  • On Sale: 02/24/2009
  • Trimsize: 5.310 in (w) x 8.000 in (h) x 0.680 in (d)
  • Pages: 304
  • List Price: $20.99
  • BISAC1 : HISTORY / General
  • BISAC2 : RELIGION / General
  • BISAC3 : RELIGION / Biblical Studies / General
  • BISAC4 : RELIGION / Biblical Studies / Old Testament
  • BISAC5 : RELIGION / Biblical Studies / New Testament
  • BISAC6 : RELIGION / Biblical Studies / Bible Study Guides
  • BISAC7 : RELIGION / Spirituality