Is God to Blame?: Beyond Pat Answers to the Problem of Suffering

by Gregory A. Boyd

Is God to blame? This is often the question that comes to mind when we confront real suffering in our own lives or in the lives of those we love. Pastor Gregory A. Boyd helps us deal with this question honestly and biblically, while avoiding glib answers. Writing for ordinary Christians, Boyd wrestles with a variety of answers that have been offered by theologians and pastors in the past. He finds that a fully Christian approach must keep the person and work of Jesus Christ at the very center of what we say about human suffering and God's place in it. Yet this is often just what is missing and what makes so much talk about the subject seem inadequate and at times even misleading. What comes through in Is God to Blame? is a hopeful picture of a sovereign God who is relentlessly opposed to evil, who knows our sufferings and who can be trusted to bring us through them to renewed life.

Genres: Theology, Christian, Faith, Nonfiction, Christianity, Religion, Spirituality

211 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2003

About the author

Gregory A. Boyd is the founder and senior pastor of Woodland Hills Church in St. Paul, Minn., and founder and president of ReKnew. He was a professor of theology at Bethel College (St. Paul, Minn.) for sixteen years where he continues to serve as an Adjunct Professor.

Greg is a graduate of the University of Minnesota (BA), Yale Divinity School (M.Div), and Princeton Theological Seminary (PhD). Greg is a national and international speaker at churches, colleges, conferences, and retreats, and has appeared on numerous radio and television shows. He has also authored and coauthored eighteen books prior to Present Perfect, including The Myth of a Christian Religion, The Myth of a Christian Nation, The Jesus Legend (with Paul Eddy), Seeing Is Believing, Repenting of Religion, and his international bestseller Letters from a Skeptic.

Reviews

[Amy Neftzger · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gregory Boyd tackles some difficult issues and does a nice job of taking on the current view within Christian culture that God controls everything and, therefore, whatever bad things come our way are there by God's design. This idea that everything is under God's control is what Boyd refers to as the "blueprint worldview."

Boyd successfully challenges this viewpoint and even goes so far as to point out the irrationality of the concept (why would God seek to fight evil with love through sacrificing himself on the cross if the evil int he world is part of his plan?). Instead, Boyd suggests that a "warfare world view" makes more sense and helps to explain a lot of the seemingly random nature of tragedy.

I love the way that Boyd challenges many of the viewpoints prevalent in contemporary christian culture. When someone suddenly loses a spouse or child or other tragedy strikes, telling the person that "God has his reasons" doesn't usually help. It only makes God seem cruel and tyrannical. Instead, if we view suffering individuals as casualties of a spiritual war, we stop excusing ourselves from helping people in need (whether emotional or physical).

This is a great book to read if you've suffered loss and are having trouble understanding why some people seem to be blessed while others appear to be cursed and it has nothing to do with their character or faith.

[Steve Irby · Rating 5 out of 5]

I just finished "Is God to Blame?--Beyond Pat Answers to the Problem of Suffering," by Gregory A. Boyd.

If you've been told horrible theology after a loss or some other tragedy read this. If you haven't the read chapter one for some focus. Let me know if you want to borrow this.

One thing I appreciate about Boyd (and Wright) are their ability to write academic and common material. This is Boyd's non-academic book for his academic "Satan and the Problem of Evil," and "God at War," and it also gives a view to his future "The Crucifixion of the Warrior God," Vols 1&2. All are great works.

What do you say to a women whose deepest desire is to be a mother, is told she can't, actually becomes pregnant and then the child dies in childbirth with the umbilical cord around its neck? Boyd begins here with this very encounter. She expresses how she was advised that this was God's plan and she is to learn a lesson from it. This advice sucked the passion for God and life out of this lady. Finally in anger she asked why won't God tell me what he wants me to learn? (Or insert your tragedy.)

Where do you go with that?

The foundation of this book is that "God looks like Jesus." Concise and beautiful and yet simply ignored by so many Christians who think that Jesus doesn't look how they want God to look so Jesus is overlooked for the lesser revelation often found and misinterpreted from the Old Testament. Chapter one hammers this home via scripture thus eliminating impassibility, or a Christ-separate-from-God taking God's wrath for us. Basically, God looks like Jesus who is love and incase we are.slipping and need to be reminded "God is love." Yes, this does demand us understand "Love" (what it is and isnt) scripturally; read 1 Cor 13. The pinnacle of Godly love is seen in the crucified God; The upside down Kingdom reveals God, kenotic to the point of death.

Chapter two gets into how once we see that God looks exactly like Jesus we get past the nonsense of the "God of the blueprint." (As an engineer I object to this analogy because dimensions on a blueprint have a range of tolerance whereas the "God of the blueprint" sees things happen precisely as He determined with no tolerance. I think any theological determinist would object for the same reason but without my cringe factor.) Boyd here spends a little time expressing--historically--the philosophical reasoning for the blueprint-God view and how it finds its basis in Greek philosophy and selectively reinforced with a few scriptures. Here we see how any change in the divine speaks to imperfection so there can be no change. This sets the stage for immutability, impassibility and timelessness. His explanation is simple and very good (see Satan and the Problem of Evil and God at War if you want a deeper dive).

"The cross reveals that God is so sovereign he doesn't need to ensure he will always get his own way," p 58.

In chapter three Boyd gets into freewill and risk. The argument goes like this: if God is love then for agents to love God in return they must have a free choice since love isn't forced (love is patient, love is kind....). This freedom to love God in return involves risk since agents could pick to not love God. This was the risk God was willing to make when God created.

Chapter four gets into the seemingly arbitrary nature of prayers getting answered, for instance, when covering the larger topic of the world as a war zone. An example of this would be a wealthy couple saying their prayer was answered in their finding the home of their dreams while some starve to death, their prayers just for food going unrealized. We can see that Godly and sinful people experience great joy and horrible loss and it's not usually according to or in proportion to their Godliness or sinfulness. But the evil of loss isn't the curse of God. Boyd explores Job for examples of this. In analyzing Job Boyd makes an astute statement about how when Jobs friends run out of theological advice they finally do the right thing and sit in silence with Job. Boyd moves to a bit of chaos theory so we can see how all these actions and free actions, human and natural, will begin a chain of events, the beginning of which would take us back in time to creation. Add to that the spiritual forces which go unrecognized often (Dan 10) and there are tons of reasons behind "why did that happen to me?" And these reasons need not be God flexing for His glory.

I'm chapter five Boyd is the first to actually get into the question of miracles and evil. The question really isnt "if God is all powerful and all loving why do bad things happen." But "why doesn't He move miraculously more?" To begin Boyd deals with Can't vs Won't. If God Wont work miracles then the blueprint view is correct. Rather he suggests a Can't perspective. In much the same way that God can't do the logically impossible (make round triangles) there are other areas of "cant" when discussing God.
Two variables he lists are as follows:
1. The necessary order of the world: This seems to say that the nature of reality is such that what is intended by one and how that is recieved by another is in such a state as not to be constantly in Flux. Nature has laws that we become used to and are expected to respond in their environment consistently. Suspension of these laws makes for an environment of chaos.
2. The irrevocability of freedom: as this suggests God in making a free creation truly free has allowed the good ramifications of free choices and the bad ones to actualize. To allow only the great ideas to come to fruition but not the bad would be to dismiss freewill. God giving genuine freedom to agents doesn't mean God can't stop them from misuse of that freedom but for it to be freedom the good and bad results have to be actualized.

Chapter six brings out the third variable one must take into consideration when speaking about miracles and God intervening into evil situations.
3. The power in prayer: If we pray only to change us then we have missed tons of scriptural illustrations depicting events actually changing due to prayer. Prayer is the supernatural extention of our freewill exercised.
Boyd lists nine metaphysical rules of prayer that must be taken into account for why a prayer is answered or not and how:
1. God's will
2. The faith of the person being prayed for
3. The faith of people praying for others
4. Persistence of prayer
5. The number of people praying
6. Human freewill
7. Angelic freewill
8. The number and strength of Spirit agents
9. The Presence of sin
One of the take-aways is that how things work on a physical level is similar to how they work on a supernatural level: the more people involved the better chance it is to happen, etc.

Chapter seven dives into the question of how we can live in a sea of ambiguity. The answer is hope. And this is based on some principles:
1. Fix your eyes on Jesus
2. Remember that Gid is with you
3. Yield to his gracious redemptive power
4. Let go of the "why" questions and confronted evil
5. Living in the Spirit
6. Live in hope knowing it will all be worth it

In chapters eight and nine Boyd looks at scriptural "examples" of theological determinism and shows how they aren't what they are often claimed to be. He begins with Rm 9, in context and using the context of the scripture Paul quotes.

There's tons to say about the question of "is God to blame" during and after tragedy. If you are at a place where you need to hear someone speaking to this then this is the book for you. The short answer is no, God didn't do it, but to flesh it out you need to read this. The next thing is that of "the reason": when someone is going through tragedy don't give a reason; be present. Our academically astute answers aren't what people need, they need us.

P.S. "Alien Perfection" drops in early 2022. If you know you know.

#GregoryABoyd #GregBoyd #IsGodToBlame #Theodicy #TheProblemOfEvil #Suffering #Pain #GodWithUs #Calvinism #TheologicalDeterminism #Christocentric

[JJ Vancil · Rating 5 out of 5]

Greg Boyd continues to a breath of fresh air. 'Is God to Blame?' is the 4th book I've read of his in the past 8 months & I'm constantly blown away by the deep of thought, Scriptural integrity and consistency of thought. This book addresses the question of why there is suffering with such grace, focus and intelligence. It just makes sense. It is so refreshing to have a voice like Boyd challenging the unscriptural and yet very prevalent blueprint model of God's sovereignty. After reading this book, I want to know and follow Jesus more. Anyone looking for a theological and intellectual journey in the problem of suffering, this is the book for you!

[William Fonn]

Har ikke møtt på noen vanntette forklaringer på det ondes mysterium, men dette er den beste så langt.

Boyd forklarer balansert og sakling hvorfor et blueprint-worldview (alt skjer for en grunn. Gud er i direkte eller indirekte kontroll av alt som skjer. Veldig utbredt i Kirken og stammer fra Augustin) ikke er forenlig med Guds kjærlighet åpenbart i Jesus.

I stedet presenterer han et warfare-worldview der vi lever i en kamp mellom der gode og onde, der Guds vilje ikke alltid vinner gjennom. Ikke enda.

Boken inspirerer til utholdenhet i bønn. Den går også i dybden på hva vi egentlig mener når vi sier at Gud er allmektig. Veldig nyttig.

[Lauren · Rating 5 out of 5]

While reading this I had to stop and thank God for Greg Boyd multiple times. 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

As a non-reformed believer who is often questioning and wresting with scripture my favorite thing is encountering a theologian wise in ancient Greek who can dissect the original text and show how things have been misinterpreted or mistranslated. I love it even more when what I learn reveals truths about God that bring closure to confusing or seemingly contradicting biblical ideas. That’s exactly what this book did for me. (3 highlights below)

-This book gave me peace with the book of Job for the first time in my life.
-Boyd tackles a lot of the scripture passages used to back reformed theology and gives Hebrew definitions for words that can have multiple meanings. He gives context, broader thinking, and most importantly centers everything through Christ to draw an alternative and often times more accurate conclusion to the meaning of certain passages in the Bible.
-I loved how he explained the “9 variables of prayer” in a way that gave me a greater understanding of the purpose of prayer. It gave me more motivation and hope in my prayer life than I’ve had in a long time.

As usual I will say there isn’t a single theology book I’ve ever read that I believe every word of (and you shouldn’t either), but this one really backs up the conclusions he draws.

[Thomas Beck]

In Is God to Blame? Greg Boyd critiques some of the traditional responses to the problem of evil, such as the suggestion that all evil is in some sense part of God's divine plan. He offers an alternative response, what he calls the 'warfare worldview,' which emphasizes evil as the result of human and angelic free will.

While I do agree with a lot of what he says, I'd argue that Boyd fails to acknowledge the myriad other approaches to the problem of evil that lie between the two he presents, some of which mix elements of both the traditional and the warfare worldviews. I think we can still accept most (if not all) evil as the product of free will without sacrificing any of God's sovereignty.

An admirable attempt to address some of the tougher aspects of the problem of evil, but one that I think ultimately falls short.

[Kristine Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a good introduction to one Christian way of thinking about suffering while still concluding that God is loving, all-powerful, and good. The target audience for this book is lay people interested in the topic of suffering. I read this book as part of preparing to lead our small group Bible study on suffering. While I have read several other books and plan to read several more, this one is a possible candidate for our group to use. The book is just over 200 pages including the introduction, nine chapters, epilogue, acknowledgments, notes, and scripture index. Here are notable quotes or summaries from each of the chapters.

Introduction
“The foundation for this book — and I believe for Christianity as a whole — is the claim that God looks like Jesus.” p16. The overview of the book says first it will look at what the Bible says about Jesus and what that says about God. It will look at difficult questions like Why an all-powerful God doesn’t deliver people from tragedy. Then it will explore the common assumption that everything happens for a divine reason. It will also look at alternative views, address “theological questions of why evil occurs” p18, and rebut objections that confront the author's proposed view.

Chapter 1: The Lie and the Truth
“Jesus is the perfect expression of God’s thought, character and will.” p39. Amidst the sea of ambiguity, we swim in we must not rely on our own ‘knowledge of good and evil’ to figure out what God is like and what he is up to.” p40.

Chapter 2: Evil and the Blueprint
“The ‘blueprint worldview’ … asserts that directly or indirectly everything in world history follows a meticulous divine blueprint.” p41. “The Cross reveals that God’s omnipotence is not primarily about control but about his compelling love. God conquers evil and wins the hearts of people by self-sacrificial love, not by coercive force.” p49. “The blueprint worldview is not based on sound philosophical reasoning and, even more importantly, is not consistent with the picture of God we get from Jesus Christ.” p59.

Chapter 3: Freedom and Risk
“Jesus didn’t come to declare that everything already manifests the Father’s will. He came, rather, to establish the Father’s will, because the world as it is now doesn’t consistently manifest God’s will. Jesus came to confront and eventually overthrow everything that does not line up with his Father’s plan for creation.” p61. “God created the world out of love and for the purpose of love. And this requires that he created free agents. There can be no love without risk. The possibility of war, therefore, is built into the possibility of love.” p76.

Chapter 4: Complexity and War
It seems like “there is no rhyme or reason as to why some prayers are answered and others aren’t.” p78. “Appealing to the free will of humans and angels explains why evil in general must be allowed. But it doesn’t explain why any particular evil occurs. … why does God intervene to stop evil in one instance but not in another?” p79. “We don’t know and can’t know why particular harmful events unfold exactly as they do. What we can know is why we can’t know: it’s not because God’s plan or character is mysterious but because we are finite humans in an incomprehensibly vast creation that is afflicted by forces of chaos.” p102.

Chapter 5: Omnipotence and Two Variables
“The constraints God placed on himself by the necessity of a stable world order and by irrevocable freedom are strong enough to prevent God from always unilaterally intervening to prevent evil. But they aren’t so strong that they prevent God from sometimes intervening.” p121. “But precisely because every event is engulfed in an unknowable complexity, we can never understand why God didn’t do more in any particular circumstance.” p124.

Chapter 6: Prayer and Ambiguity
“In this chapter I will discuss the power, rationale and principles of prayer. Understanding these will not only add to our appreciation of the unknowable complexity behind every event, but also help us understand our significant role in shaping what comes to pass.” p126. “James sums up the general teaching on prayer when he says that ‘the prayer of the righteous is powerful and effective’ (Jas 5:16).” p129. “Prayer affects everything, but it may not have the outcome we are praying for; it is persuasive, not coercive. People still make free choices.” p141.

Chapter 7: Life and Hope
“Understanding our freedom and finitude helps us comprehend how evil can happen in God’s creation and why we usually can’t penetrate the mystery of why things happen as they do. However, understanding this doesn’t help us live in the midst of this war-torn sea of ambiguity. So the question we must now ask is, How can we effectively live in the sea of ambiguity? And how are we to find solace, hope and courage in this situation, especially when we or someone we love becomes a casualty of war?” p152. The author proposes 6 principles to find life and hope:
1. “Fix your eyes on Jesus” p153. “Calvary is God’s ultimate answer to the problem of evil. If anyone suffers because of the risky nature of the cosmos, it is God. And his suffering, combined with his work in and through the church, is what defeats the devil and ultimately transforms the world.” p154.
2. “Remember that God is with You” p154.
3. “Yield to His Gracious Redemptive Power” p155.
4. “Let Go of the ‘Why’ Questions and Confront Evil” p157.
5. “Living in the Spirit” p159.
6. “Live in Hope Knowing it all will be Worth it.” p161.

Chapter 8: Mercy and Hardening
This chapter and the next “examine key biblical passages that some people believe support the blueprint perspective” and “attempt to explain apparently discordant data.” p165. “On the basis of these six considerations I conclude that the blueprint interpretation of Romans 9 is misguided and unfortunate. … It fundamentally clashes with the supremacy of God’s self-revelation in Christ.” p176.

Chapter 9: Providence and Control
Boyd looks at 9+ passages in the Bible that have been used to promote the blueprint view and shows how other interpretations that don’t support that view are also reasonable and faithful. “Though there are passages of scripture that appear to contradict warfare worldview, when examined closely, they don’t. In each case an alternative, more plausible interpretation is available,” p194.

Understanding suffering from a Christian perspective is complex and I thought this book did a good job proposing a view that is faithful to God’s character revealed in Jesus. Thoughtful readers will likely not be completely satisfied with this book (and probably not any book will address every concern). I do recommend this book and appreciate this resource on such a hard subject.

[Alex Szatmary · Rating 2 out of 5]

Boyd does a great job of pointing out the problems with what I would call "superstitious Christianity", that is, looking for God in the tiny, chaotic details of life. He also appropriately calls to task those who respond to suffering with responses that indicate that the suffering was worthwhile because it's part of God's larger purpose--this makes God a bully. His writing is pastoral, and, from that perspective, the book is useful.

Also, his emphasis on doing theology through the lens of the person of Jesus is apt.

Critically! It must be read critically! Boyd's theology is flatly heretical, detached from traditional interpretation and from apt scriptural support. He cites the Fathers primarily to disagree with them.

Boyd argues that open theism is necessary for good theodicy. The historical consensus of the great theologians of the church disagrees--he even rejects the Arminian doctrine of foreknowledge.

I would argue that Boyd is insufficiently Christocentric. Christianity is flatly contradictory in many ways--divine sovereignty and human free will is only one of these contradictions. Jesus, as God and man, in sacrificing himself, and in the resurrection, holds these contradictions together. Boyd's abandonment of God's foreknowledge is unnecessary.

I still recommend this book for anyone who holds to a traditional theodicy: we need to ask why Open Theism is becoming so popular, and hear the claims of Open Theists on their own terms. And, despite my ardent disagreement with Boyd's theology, I did find some of his spiritual advice welcome and refreshing.

[J.L. Neyhart · Rating 5 out of 5]

Highly recommend. It's one of those books I want to make all my friends read. I hope to write a real review at a later time.

[Steven H · Rating 5 out of 5]

THE PASTOR AND THEOLOGIAN LOOKS AT THE QUESTION OF GOD AND EVIL

Gregory A. Boyd (born 1957) is a Christian theologian, Senior Pastor of the Woodland Hills Church, and President of Christus Victor Ministries. He has also written a number of other books such as 'God of the Possible: A Biblical Introduction to the Open View of God,' 'Letters from a Skeptic: A Son Wrestles with His Father's Questions about Christianity,' 'Satan & the Problem of Evil: Constructing a Trinitarian Warfare Theodicy,' etc.

He wrote in the Introduction to this 2003 book, "This is a book about the mystery of why tragic things happen the way they do. So it seems fitting to introduce this book with one of the toughest WHY questions a person can ever face: Why did a woman's precious baby die in childbirth?" (Pg. 11) Later, he suggests, "Understanding why God made free beings goes a long way in answering why evil IN GENERAL is allowed to take place. But it doesn't address the mystery of why PARTICULAR evils happen to PARTICULAR people. It doesn't answer the age old question, 'Why me?' Nor does it answer why God seems to miraculously answer prayer sometimes but not at other times. Why does everything in life, including God's interaction with us, seem so arbitrary?" (Pg. 18)

He observes, "it's very difficult to see how some of the more horrendous episodes of evil in this world contribute to a higher good. It's hard to believe that more good will come out of the pain and death of each Holocaust victim than if any one of them had been spared. It's hard to imagine how the unthinkable abuse of a helpless little boy contributes more to the overall good of creation than his safety. It's difficult to accept that each death in the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks, and every broken heart that resulted from these attacks, somehow contributes to a 'higher harmony.' And it's difficult to accept that people in hell somehow contribute to the overall good of creation." (Pg. 56)

He continues, "This apparent arbitrariness carries over to the way God answers prayer. While most people who regularly pray tell of occasions when their prayers were miraculously answered, they also admit that there is no rhyme or reason as to why some prayers are answered and others aren't...
"
Appealing to the free will of humans and angels explains why evil IN GENERAL must be allowed. But it doesn't explain why any PARTICULAR evil occurs. And it doesn't explain God's seemingly arbitrary involvement in the world. Why does God intervene to stop evil in one instance but not in another?.. I must confess at the start that what I'm actually attempting to explain is why there can be no final explanation to this question. The arbitrariness of life is a mystery. Yet everything hangs on where we locate this arbitrariness and mystery." (Pg. 78-79)

He points out, "the experience of radical evil crushes people at least as often as it builds them up. While Christians frequently testify how their tragedy was turned to a good purpose, there are just as many untold stories of people whose faith and character were devastated by tragedy. In the light the effectiveness of God's teaching program seems dubious at best." (Pg. 83) Later, he adds, "I have argued that God can't prevent all evil, not because he lacks power but because of the kind of world he chose to create." (Pg. 117)

He concludes, "Why did Melanie's baby die in childbirth when, for all we know, in the next room a woman gave birth to a healthy baby she didn't want? Why did one person miraculously escape the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center when another arrived just in time to be incinerated? Why does a family who prays for protection lose their son in a car crash while others who never pray avoid crashes their entire life? In this book I have argued that there is no answer to such 'why' questions. It's an impenetrable mystery." (Pg. 195)

This stimulating, thought-provoking, and sometimes disturbing book will be of great interest to anyone studying the "problem of Evil."

[Ethan · Rating 3 out of 5]

An introductory discussion of the issue of theodicy in theology: is God to blame for the evil present in the world?

The author expounds upon themes present in other works he has written throughout; this volume is more accessible. He speaks of the difficulties which arise in theology when people presume that God has actively willed all the things that happen, including evil.

He speaks of the "blueprint model," a way of speaking of the Augustinian Calvinist synthesis informed by a Neoplatonic perspective on God (prevalent not only in Calvinism but in much of Protestantism). He analyzes this perspective and demonstrates where it is lacking. He advances and prefers the "warfare model," in which God has created both humans and spiritual beings with free will and allows those free will decisions to exist even when they would go against His purposes.

The book then sets forth the contrast between these two perspectives as they relate to the problem of evil, difficulties people encounter, and exploring the question why some prosper but others suffer. The author wisely recognizes that such questions are vanity, and encourages considering everything in light of God defeating sin and death in Jesus, and looking at everything in terms of seeing God in Jesus. In this way he seeks to dismiss the stronger claims of the "blueprint model" and provide people with a way of understanding God which affirms His sovereignty while making it clear that He is not responsible for the evil that takes place in the world.

On the whole it is persuasively argued, although at times the author falls into the same, albeit opposite, of the trap in which Augustine fell: certain presuppositions are not challenged. Since God loves us in Christ, it is imagined, God would not bring calamity. And yet Scripture speaks frequently of YHWH bringing calamity in judgment on those who continually resist His will...and Jesus Himself spoke condemnation on Jerusalem because they rejected their Christ. If one's view of God cannot see Him upholding justice in judgment and displaying love, grace, and mercy in Christ, it remains as warped as that against which one is arguing.

Nevertheless, on the whole, a good way of looking at the issue and getting away from the Neoplatonic God of the Augustinian tradition.

[John M · Rating 4 out of 5]

Most people looking at this book would not see it as ground-breaking. It doesn't offer a lot of new information inasmuch as it ties together a lot of information that is commonly held. Boyd is also an expert at highlighting where we hold contradicting beliefs in popular Christianity - particularly the theology in some of our worship music and popular poetry. Like a surgeon, Boyd systematically highlights these damaging beliefs exposing them, and then artfully removes them.

Boyd asserts that the most damaging theology is a Calvinist approach called "The Blueprint View." Everything happens for a reason. God is in control. Nothing bad can happen that God cannot change. And other such platitudes. While I do not hold to this view, it's surprising to see just how this view is intermingled and assumed in much of our Arminian theology.

Big takeaways from the Book:
*God's will is constantly NOT being done
*God allows free will of humans and supernatural beings to deny himself
*God has the power to manipulate and control, but that is not loving
*Jesus is a clear example that God does is not the author of evil and is not to be blamed for evil
*We don't beg God for healing because the problem isn't on God's end
*God's answer to why suffering happens has always been "it's too complex to understand." In order to understand why something happened, you'd have to be all-knowing.

As is my criticism of a lot of the Christian books I read, I felt like this book could be 50 pages shorter. The author has a history of repeating himself a lot and it really felt unnecessary as the book came to a close.

[Becky · Rating 3 out of 5]

It took me forever to get through this book. It is very academic, and even if you skip over all the scriptural citations, it still bogs you down with a lot of philosophy, theory, and research. So it's good, it's informative, it's enlightening, but it is not an easy, quick read.

I appreciated a lot of of what Boyd had to say, but I do question his insistence that his idea of a warfare model of creation is better and different to a blueprint model. He continually points out that in the blueprint model, God interferes in everything and controls everything in life like a giant chess game, and that it can't and shouldn't be that way. Then he says that his model, the warfare model, means God is more hands-off, because freewill requires it. ...And yet he also says that in this model, God uses evil actions and intentions to further his plans, and that he enhances the hardness of the hearts of individuals who have chosen to work against him, so that it fits nicely into his own actions. I have a hard time seeing how the two are different. Both sound like God meddles.

Again, it is a very cerebral book, and at times difficult to follow. It's possible I missed something and that the differences are more nuanced than I'm realizing.

Overall, I didn't love this book, but it was insightful and interesting at various points throughout.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well, not sure what to think. My takeaways: prayer is important. Second, the author writes A LOT about Jesus, how he lives, how he prayed.

So I find out the author is a "new" thing with theologians: an open theist.

Open theism is a theological perspective that proposes God's knowledge of the future is limited, particularly regarding human free will choices. It contrasts with classical theism, which generally holds that God has complete foreknowledge of all future events. Open theists believe that because humans possess genuine free will, the future is not entirely predetermined, and therefore God's knowledge of it is not exhaustive.

He writes that because God is love, He made us to choose to love Him. If everything is planned out, we are not making a choice about anything.

I guess this author is the opposite of hypercalvinism.

After reading the book Deuteronomy 29:29 came to mind. "The secret things belong to the Lord our God."

The author contrast what he calls the blueprint model of the universe, human life, life on earth etc with the warfare model. I liked that because I think we are often just oblivious to the unseen realm.

I recommended the book to someone who is very Reformed and she sent me a picture: she had used a black marker and wrote on the cover in large letters, "Do not recommend." I told her I was sorry she did that as she would have returned it to Amazon.

I kind of recommend it because of this idea of the warfare model, the big emphasis on prayer and also the great focus on Jesus. I mean, he really writes a lot about Jesus with thoughts from the Gospels.

[JL · Rating 5 out of 5]

Does God orchestrate suffering? Was COVID-19 unleashed from heaven to teach humanity a lesson? Greg Boyd's answer in Is God to Blame is a Biblically-grounded "no." Many believers have been taught to think of God as having a preordained blueprint for everything that happens. Thus, when terrible things occur, it must be God's will ... somehow. Boyd, on the other hand, comes at the problem of suffering from a warfare worldview. Yes, God is omnipotent and in ultimate control, but allowing for freedom among his created beings meant also allowing for rebellion. Much of creation has been at war with God since the beginning.

What about the Old Testament, where God is shown issuing consequences in response to the Israelites' unfaithfulness to the covenant? Boyd references verse after verse in which God calls his people back time and time again and grieves when they fail to respond. Boyd also points out that when people invoke Job's words, "The Lord gives, the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord," they usually do so without understanding how the book turns out. Job actually repents of that view later. In Job we learn that God and the world he created are unfathomably complex, and we simply can't know why one person suffers while another is spared. Yet, in the Gospels God is revealed through Jesus in a way our human minds can grasp. Whenever Jesus was faced with sickness, sin, and suffering, he sympathized and, often, healed. From Jesus, who was in fully nature God, we learn that our heavenly father never takes delight in our pain.

[Sharon Archer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just as I was close to finishing this book I heard a wonderful sermon about this very topic. Most of us have said these words, everything happens for a reason. It was Pastor Nicole‘s message that we often say these words when we don’t have a reason why something happens. However she says how dangerous they are for us.

When something happens that we cannot understand, it was a suggestion from her that we take the time for awhile to just sit with the sadness and grief… That we sit with the person who has experienced the sadness and grief. It’s just too easy to allow everything happens for a reason to become a way to numb ourselves to the pain of the world. Sitting with the pain for a time can only make us better empathetic humans…

[Rosemarie Fitzsimmons · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quickly becoming my favorite writer/teacher. I so appreciate Boyd's approach to the unanswerable questions: Why me, why now? Some material in this book will shake your world, challenge your beliefs (not your faith, but the certainty of your faith), and change the way you see God. Starting from the position that Jesus came to earth to show us what the Father looks like, we can reasonably assume God is not arbitrary in his treatment. He does not punish us continually -- Jesus took our punishment, remember? Or don't we believe that? Read this book. You still won't have all the answers when you're done, but you'll know what NOT to say when people ask "Why?"

[Yrag Notsew · Rating 4 out of 5]

A challenging, well written book that ought to be read. It's challenging because it tries to upset the commonly accepted paradigm. It's well written because it is highly structured, logical and includes not only theoretical theological constructs (in easy to understand language) but also practical, everyday examples. I recommend this book to all pastors, all Christian counsellors, everybody who has ever grieved and wants to know how God fits into your pain. I was largely persuaded by my first reading. But when I began reading it for a second time I got more skeptical.

[Alan Beam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Before reading this, I would have agreed with what Boyd calls the Warfare Perspective. But as he analyzed and criticized the Blueprint Perspective, I realized that I have some deep seeded beliefs that I need to uproot. In addition, he helped explain some hard to understand passages in Scripture that seem to support predestination and the Blueprint Perspective, but in context are actually consistent with the rest of the bible's view of God.

This challenged me, taught me, and equipped me. I highly recommend it.

[Justin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've yet to be disappointed by any of Boyd's writing. If you've read his other books, some of these arguments will feel familiar, even if it's specifically focused here. The book fits in a space between something pastoral and something theological (realizing that might be a false divide). I'd be interested in a fuller take on some of the topics in this book, which he does cover in more detail elsewhere. As it is, it's an excellent an introduction to the warfare worldview instead of the more traditional blueprint model, ideas that more people need to encounter.

[Tali Davidson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Is God to Blame? is such an interesting book that changed my perspective in so so many ways. I did not know exactly what I believed in on the topic of predestination and things like that but I know what I had been raised to believe and Boyd went against all of that. I am still not sure what I believe, but I loved learning so much about the other side of things.
This book is very challenging and can be hard to get through but it is rich with information and history.

[Trish · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is challenging to read - it's just not the easiest prose to follow and absorb. That said, it was extremely stimulating in terms of confronting and grappling with the realities of human suffering, man's responsibility and God's sovereignty. It just might prompt one to shift their world view a bit.

[Hayley]

It’s given me a whole new perspective on suffering. Especially challenged to:
- consider Jesus more. If he is the exact imprint of God, what can I learn from Him about Gods response to suffering (and all sorts of other life issues)
- pray more, believing prayer really does matter and really is heard by God and makes a difference to our circumstances and the world.

[Amanda Lanata · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not everyone is a fan of Greg Boyd, but I appreciate his work. I was looking for a book that explored the biblical teachings about suffering. Boyd provides a hope-filled and logical analysis of the biblical texts and subsequent teachings. I love his premise of looking to Jesus (and the full revelation of God) when faced with suffering.

[The Jesus Fandom · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think this book gave a helpful perspective on the question of why there is suffering. I know his view on God’s power and almight is controversial, but the author at least defends it from the Bible. Calling him a heretic and ignoring his works, as some do, doesn’t seem like the appropriate response somehow.

[Clint Leavitt · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best book I’ve read on the problem/challenge of suffering - succinctly and robustly summarizes a healthy scriptural paradigm for making sense of God’s character and action in the midst of a broken but being-redeemed cosmos. A must read, particularly for those who have been hurt by the “blueprint” paradigm and Christian platitudes.

[Barney Wiget · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the best books on theodicy that I've read! If not the best...

[Kimberly Coward · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not perfect, but challenging.

[Jessica]

interesting read, ended w slightly better understanding of free will vs God's control, suffering, learned abt diff frameworks blueprint vs warfare

[Kim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hands down the best book I’ve read on this topic.