What Shall We Say?: Evil, Suffering, and the Crisis of Faith

by Thomas G. Long

Tsunamis, earthquakes, famines, diseases, wars &mdash these and other devastating forces lead Christians to ask painful questions. Is God all-powerful? Is God good? How can God allow so much innocent human suffering?These questions, taken together, have been called the "theodicy problem," and in this book Thomas Long explores what preachers can and should say in response. Long reviews the origins and history of the theodicy problem and engages the work of major thinkers who have posed solutions to it. Cautioning pastors not to ignore urgent theodicy-related questions arising from their parishioners, he offers biblically based approaches to preaching on theodicy, guided by Jesus' parable of the wheat and the tares and the "greatest theodicy text in Scripture" -- the book of Job.

Genres: Theology, Religion, Nonfiction, Christianity

172 pages, Paperback

First published October 20, 2011

Reviews

[Patrick Funston · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book came recommended by a friend and fellow priest. I read it as the combination of COVID pandemic and pandemic of racism sweep across the United States.

This is a book about how to preach, specifically it’s about how to preach about “theodicy” in a whole-hearted Christian way. Theodicy, literally “justification of God,” is the part of theological inquiry that seeks to understand the reality of evil and suffering in the world.

Long has a wide range of opponents and does a great job sampling arguments before offering his own. He takes on the Enlightenment, the “New Atheists,” pablum-spouting pastoral care and finally those who avoid the conversation or appeal to Mystery. I really enjoyed this and would recommend it to any preacher.

[Richard Brand · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a pretty solid piece of work. Tom Long reveals a great deal of scholarship and research for this book. I was surprised by the vastness of his quotes of scholarly material. But it is a pretty clearly and plainly presented argument. He does not settle for easy or cheap answers. He deals with the mystery of a Good God, powerful, loving and evil. One of those must not be true -- or so philosophers have suggested. Dr. Long argues that Christian preachers do have another way of coming at the problem. A good God made a good earth. when evil is found, we have a right and an act of loyal faith to come in fury, anger and pain to God and voice our displeasure with him. But God is not responsible for evil. There is a power of evil and sin in the world which causes our suffering. But the evil in all of us means that God cannot come and destroy evil for we would all be destroyed. Also God is not a God of military force or power to destroy evil by force. God is not a God that loves power in our human understanding of power. God is the power of love which is revealed in the suffering and death of Christ on the Cross. It is by this power of love that God is at work now in the world, in this people, through his church to confront and fight evil. All the people who respond to disasters are people of love who are diluting the power of evil. The power of love has and will make in the final victory eliminate evil.

Whether this will satisfy our newly minted atheistic culture is another question but it is a different approach to the logical mess of the four love, good, power evil gridlock.

[Lisa Rzepka · Rating 4 out of 5]

Long's thesis is that the "spiritual not religious" are playing an "Impossible Chess Match" where God loses. Post-moderns need to "repaint" their picture of God and preachers need to help them break out of the Impossible Chess Match and help face the tough questions of faith head on. Lots of good illustrations for discussing theodicy questions. Enough in here for a series of sermons.

[Trey Kennedy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book makes claims not to focus on the scholarly aspects of Theodicy, but looks at it from a practical preaching perspective. It does, however, end up being mostly an introduction to the introduction of the subject. What really makes this book helpful is the final chapter when we get a Biblical look at the Christian response to the question of theodicy. The last chapter is helpful beyond belief, especially in dealing with the questions Long lays out. I just wish he had taken a shorter and more direct path to get there.

[Patterson Lyles · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best books on theodicy out there.

[Jen Simmons · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best book I’ve read on subject. And I’ve read a lot!

[M Christopher · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good, short work on theodicy. There is nothing new here for the student of the subject but Rev. Long writes well and offers a clear-eyed, level-headed viewpoint on the classic questions of Good, Evil, and the Nature of God. Recommended for new and seasoned theologians alike.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

Through dramatic retelling of this history and sharing stories of individual suffering, Long pushes us face-to-face with the thorniest problem in all theology, the one that has come to be labeled “theodicy.” He points out that theodicy is a relatively recent way of reacting to pain and suffering. In biblical times, when a person experienced this sort of injustice, it would drive him or her to prayerful lament, to ever greater cries to God to come and save. In our time, pain and suffering often drive people to frame evil and suffering as a rational problem that requires a logical solution. Long calls this latter response “the impossible chess match,” a game in which the outcome always seems rigged against faith in favor of no faith.

What, then, shall we say to the problems of evil and suffering? First, Long argues, a compassionate Christian response accepts people who are suffering where they are. There is a time simply to acknowledge suffering, and listen to the voices of pain and outrage. But, Long says, there does come a time when people of faith try to make sense of their experiences of evil and suffering. When that time comes, we must realize – and this is Long’s second point – that the Bible does not operate in the same way as contemporary philosophical discourse. It is less a record of philosophy and more a living story of relationship.

Though the Bible doesn’t answer all the problematic philosophical questions we might throw at it, it offers something more important. It bears witness to the triune God who offers us a close relationship in and through suffering, to the time when “God will wipe every tear from their eyes ….” From our perspective, we can’t know everything about evil, but we do know that it is God’s enemy, and that God comes to battle it in the power of the cross and the power of love.

[Philip Zoutendam · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent little book that does exactly what it sets out to do: offer a kind of "practical theodicy" for people trying to confront real life suffering in light of Christian faith. Long writes — or more precisely speaks, since the book is adapted from a lecture series — like a seasoned preacher: his prose is comfortable and clear, his examples memorable, and his exegesis both imaginative and insightful.

The preacherly style does inflate the length a bit — I think he could have said as much in about 50 fewer pages — but I think that's a reasonable trade-off for an "easy read" on a difficult subject, and it means you can often skim and still get the point.

I think this one should sit next to Hart's *Doors of the Sea* as accessible and rewarding reading for a Christian theology of suffering.

[Robert D. Cornwall · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tom Long has written a powerfully, wonderful, book that helps us, especially those of us called to be preachers, to wrestle with the questions of evil and sufering. It is a call to move beyond a ministry of presence to saying something, for those who suffer, those who ask why and where is God want a word, even if it is an incomplete one. I will be writing a much fuller review for a journal, but I can say this -- it is a book that moved me deeply, especially as I neared the end of the book. It wrestles with Job, but finds guidance not in Job but in Matthew's Parable of the Weeds.

It is one of the best books I've read this year, and one I highly recommend.

http://www.bobcornwall.com/2012/01/bo...

[Glenn Crouch · Rating 4 out of 5]

Once again I would like to give a book an extra half rating 4.5 :)

Thomas Long does a fine job at addressing the Theodicy question by both looking at common responses as well as the history of such responses. But the strength of this book is the Author's concern to aid Pastors and Preachers in how to address such issues as Natural Disasters and Evil actions in a way that is theologically sound as well as pastoral caring - and the later is often abandoned in preference to the former.

Whilst I don't agree with all the assumptions nor or all the conclusions of the Author, I really appreciated how he used the parable of the Weeds from Matthew as a way of addressing the issue. I've learnt a lot from that!

[Anna · Rating 3 out of 5]

A useful overview of theodicy, written with heart as well as mind. Long uses most of the book to set out the dominant views, and only speaks directively in that last pages. I would have liked for him to expound further in this last section, but overall I found the book helpful.

[Len Knighton · Rating 5 out of 5]

While I don't agree with Long's ultimate conclusion, I enjoyed the process of getting there. Our local ministerium spent 8 months discussing this book and it was worth every minute. A very important contribution to the discussion of one of the most critical issues the Church faces every day.

[Bill]

Long tries to understand the problem of suffering and evil. Well written and he has some fresh insights, but ultimately falls back on incomplete answers and old ways of thinking. 2.9 Martinie glasses

[Audrey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Super. The organization is helpful for teaching purposes.

[Joe Iovino · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book very helpful in the issue of theodicy. There are no easy answers here, but great encouragement to pastors to assist their congregations in wrestling with these difficult questions.

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

12/29/13

[Bill Williams · Rating 5 out of 5]

A different, but thought provoking, view of The Joban story.

[Jane · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent!