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Why Does God Let It Happen?
In the wake of life-changing events—whether as global in reach as the terrorist attacks on September 11 or as personal as the death of a child—the first question that springs to mind is “Why?” Why do good people suffer pain and loss? Why does God allow these things to happen? In this simple, straightforward book, Bruce Henderson tackles some of the most difficult questions that people of faith face in their lives. Drawing from the wisdom of visionary Emanuel Swedenborg, who wrestled with these same questions more than two hundred years ago, Henderson describes a universe in which God allows us free will and choice, subtly guiding the course of our lives with an insight no mortal can comprehend. Pain and suffering ultimately lead to good, and as we walk the path, we draw ever closer to heaven. In the end, the question is not why these things happen, but what good can come of them, and how we can use our gift of free will to create a better world for ourselves and others. In this, Henderson says, God is our partner and guiding hand, turning pain to hope and trust.
- GenresGrief
112 pages, Paperback
First published June 1, 2010
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
July 18, 2014
The God We Never Wanted to Know: Kushner, Swedenborg, and the whole damn thing ...
[This review makes reference to the book, When Bad Things Happen to Good People, by Rabbi Harold S. Kushner.]
Here is a tale to be told: One day, John Anybody was standing on the subway platform waiting his usual evening subway train. He’s way at the front end of the station; for some strange reason, John always likes to be in the first car. He’s standing a bit close to the edge, maybe a bit too close, but he’s sure to see the train coming in plenty of time to step back for safety’s sake.
---
Suddenly John becomes aware of voices yelling. Many voices. He hears them crying out for help, running to the edge themselves to try to signal the oncoming train to stop. A man has fallen onto the tracks – let’s say accidentally – and is now running to try to stay ahead of the train to get to the emergency ladder at the front end of the platform. In fact, right where our friend John is standing.
---
Time seemed to stand still. John clearly saw a man trying in vain to outrun the train. He heard the man’s last screams. He saw the man’s hands thrust towards him in what would be this human being’s last, desperate act before leaving this world in a manner usually reserved for insects. John remembers those hands. There was just time for him to throw his newspaper aside and grab them – even one of them – and pull with all his might to save this man. He remembers thinking about it in that last instance before witnessing the man being pulled under the wheels of a three ton subway car. Then he saw how close the train really had come. He might get pulled down too! He hesitates, and the man on the tracks is crushed to death.
---
So why does God let it happen? I expected an engaging and thoughtful discourse on this particular conundrum of human suffering. What I did not expect was the author, a human himself, to propose a concrete answer. Indeed, Henderson writes with the breathless enthusiasm of a kid who’s got his hand up in class, the only one, bursting with the sheer joy of having what no other kid could provide: Not just an answer, but the answer.
---
That answer is to be found in the writings and visions of the 14th century “prophet” and mystic, Emanuel Swedenborg. It is called the doctrine of permission, that is, that God respects our free will so much that he allows evil to happen even though he could stop it. The good news? He only allows evil to express itself when it is an evil that can be turned to good. I’ll be sure and tell that to the parents of the two, teenage Indian girls that were hanged from a tree, a story that broke about a month before this review was submitted.
---
How do we understand such events? First we must remember our lowly position and our meager understanding, two constraints that damn us to always misunderstanding God’s true intentions:
---
“Our knowledge is always imperfect. How little we know, really, of the challenges we must face, or how much tragedy and testing we must endure, to provide just the right mix of providence and permission that God knows is necessary for salvation” (p. 29)
---
The temptation to review the theology rather than the book is almost overwhelming to this reviewer, but I think it’s best to leave it there as far as this doctrine of concerned. Many people obtain great joy and assurance from Swedenborg’s revelations, and that, after all is the paramount purpose of any religious, pastoral work.
Back to the “book”: This is really more of a monograph – a personal publication of one’s thoughts or beliefs – than a book. The discussion of this all-important question in our understanding of human suffering is continuously truncated so that the Swedenborgian point of view can be introduced and left as the last word. Pity too, because Henderson has a vivacious mind that clearly is aware of all the tendrils of the conversation, but he forestalls all but one, his own, sacrificing all else with respect to his readers’ engagement.
---
Particularly jarring are Henderson’s periodic attempts to portray his monograph as “an answer to Kushner”. He draws generously from the well of the good rabbi’s wisdom and work. However, it would seem Henderson missed the two ingredients that make Rabbi Kushner’s work an enduring classic of its genre: Contemplation and Humility. Here are examples of both:
---
“... my religious commitment to the supreme value of a human life makes it hard for me to accept an answer that is not scandalized by an innocent person’s pain, that condones human pain because it supposedly contributes to an overall work of esthetic value. If a human artist or employer made children suffer so that something immensely impressive or valuable could come to pass, we would put him in prison. Why then should we excuse God or causing such undeserved pain, no matter how wonderful the ultimate result may be?” (Kushner, p. 23)
---
And more to the point:
---
“[T]here were not many people to help us when Aaron [the rabbi’s 14-yr. old son] was living and dying. Friends tried, and were helpful, but how much could they really do? And the books I turned to were more concerned with defending God’s honor, with logical proof that bad is really good and that evil is necessary to make this a good world, than they were with curing the bewilderment and the anguish of the parent of a dying child. They had an answer to all of their own questions, but no answer for mine.” (Kushner, p. 7, italics added)
---
The attempts to “glom on” to Kushner’s popularity are brazen, and the rabbi was kind enough to provide a marketing quote that appears at the top of the front cover: “The best consideration ... from a traditional perspective that I have ever read” (italics added). Anyone who is familiar with Kushner’s book will recognize this as watery praise, noting that the Rabbi himself found little helpful when the “traditional” perspective was meted out to him during his son’s illness. One wonders whether Henderson would have written his monograph at all if he had truly taken the good rabbi’s predicament to heart.
---
Kushner’s work needs an apologeia like a pup needs a fourth tail, and like so much proselytizing literature, there is an overdone, saccharine enthusiasm in Henderson’s voice that is more off-putting than alluring. Unless you are specifically interested in a quick and superficial romp through the Swedenborgian point of view, you may find this book null with respect to its contribution to your understanding of the debacles involved in helping each other through the “bad things”, how to save each other when the little foxes have overwhelmed our neighbor’s vineyard. There is little here that most would find pastoral, and that is not the fault of Swedenborg, but of Henderson. -ACD
[This review makes reference to the book, When Bad Things Happen to Good People, by Rabbi Harold S. Kushner.]
Here is a tale to be told: One day, John Anybody was standing on the subway platform waiting his usual evening subway train. He’s way at the front end of the station; for some strange reason, John always likes to be in the first car. He’s standing a bit close to the edge, maybe a bit too close, but he’s sure to see the train coming in plenty of time to step back for safety’s sake.
---
Suddenly John becomes aware of voices yelling. Many voices. He hears them crying out for help, running to the edge themselves to try to signal the oncoming train to stop. A man has fallen onto the tracks – let’s say accidentally – and is now running to try to stay ahead of the train to get to the emergency ladder at the front end of the platform. In fact, right where our friend John is standing.
---
Time seemed to stand still. John clearly saw a man trying in vain to outrun the train. He heard the man’s last screams. He saw the man’s hands thrust towards him in what would be this human being’s last, desperate act before leaving this world in a manner usually reserved for insects. John remembers those hands. There was just time for him to throw his newspaper aside and grab them – even one of them – and pull with all his might to save this man. He remembers thinking about it in that last instance before witnessing the man being pulled under the wheels of a three ton subway car. Then he saw how close the train really had come. He might get pulled down too! He hesitates, and the man on the tracks is crushed to death.
---
So why does God let it happen? I expected an engaging and thoughtful discourse on this particular conundrum of human suffering. What I did not expect was the author, a human himself, to propose a concrete answer. Indeed, Henderson writes with the breathless enthusiasm of a kid who’s got his hand up in class, the only one, bursting with the sheer joy of having what no other kid could provide: Not just an answer, but the answer.
---
That answer is to be found in the writings and visions of the 14th century “prophet” and mystic, Emanuel Swedenborg. It is called the doctrine of permission, that is, that God respects our free will so much that he allows evil to happen even though he could stop it. The good news? He only allows evil to express itself when it is an evil that can be turned to good. I’ll be sure and tell that to the parents of the two, teenage Indian girls that were hanged from a tree, a story that broke about a month before this review was submitted.
---
How do we understand such events? First we must remember our lowly position and our meager understanding, two constraints that damn us to always misunderstanding God’s true intentions:
---
“Our knowledge is always imperfect. How little we know, really, of the challenges we must face, or how much tragedy and testing we must endure, to provide just the right mix of providence and permission that God knows is necessary for salvation” (p. 29)
---
The temptation to review the theology rather than the book is almost overwhelming to this reviewer, but I think it’s best to leave it there as far as this doctrine of concerned. Many people obtain great joy and assurance from Swedenborg’s revelations, and that, after all is the paramount purpose of any religious, pastoral work.
Back to the “book”: This is really more of a monograph – a personal publication of one’s thoughts or beliefs – than a book. The discussion of this all-important question in our understanding of human suffering is continuously truncated so that the Swedenborgian point of view can be introduced and left as the last word. Pity too, because Henderson has a vivacious mind that clearly is aware of all the tendrils of the conversation, but he forestalls all but one, his own, sacrificing all else with respect to his readers’ engagement.
---
Particularly jarring are Henderson’s periodic attempts to portray his monograph as “an answer to Kushner”. He draws generously from the well of the good rabbi’s wisdom and work. However, it would seem Henderson missed the two ingredients that make Rabbi Kushner’s work an enduring classic of its genre: Contemplation and Humility. Here are examples of both:
---
“... my religious commitment to the supreme value of a human life makes it hard for me to accept an answer that is not scandalized by an innocent person’s pain, that condones human pain because it supposedly contributes to an overall work of esthetic value. If a human artist or employer made children suffer so that something immensely impressive or valuable could come to pass, we would put him in prison. Why then should we excuse God or causing such undeserved pain, no matter how wonderful the ultimate result may be?” (Kushner, p. 23)
---
And more to the point:
---
“[T]here were not many people to help us when Aaron [the rabbi’s 14-yr. old son] was living and dying. Friends tried, and were helpful, but how much could they really do? And the books I turned to were more concerned with defending God’s honor, with logical proof that bad is really good and that evil is necessary to make this a good world, than they were with curing the bewilderment and the anguish of the parent of a dying child. They had an answer to all of their own questions, but no answer for mine.” (Kushner, p. 7, italics added)
---
The attempts to “glom on” to Kushner’s popularity are brazen, and the rabbi was kind enough to provide a marketing quote that appears at the top of the front cover: “The best consideration ... from a traditional perspective that I have ever read” (italics added). Anyone who is familiar with Kushner’s book will recognize this as watery praise, noting that the Rabbi himself found little helpful when the “traditional” perspective was meted out to him during his son’s illness. One wonders whether Henderson would have written his monograph at all if he had truly taken the good rabbi’s predicament to heart.
---
Kushner’s work needs an apologeia like a pup needs a fourth tail, and like so much proselytizing literature, there is an overdone, saccharine enthusiasm in Henderson’s voice that is more off-putting than alluring. Unless you are specifically interested in a quick and superficial romp through the Swedenborgian point of view, you may find this book null with respect to its contribution to your understanding of the debacles involved in helping each other through the “bad things”, how to save each other when the little foxes have overwhelmed our neighbor’s vineyard. There is little here that most would find pastoral, and that is not the fault of Swedenborg, but of Henderson. -ACD
August 26, 2021
Very good experience
Very informative and let's you understand the greatness of God and what he wants from each one of us. God is good with everyone.
Very informative and let's you understand the greatness of God and what he wants from each one of us. God is good with everyone.
April 22, 2013
This book is basically about why God gets the blame for bad things and why He shouldn't get the blame because everything will just turn out the way it should--eventually and for eternity. I found this book by Henderson poorly organized and lacking flow. An annoying part of it is that the author repeatedly refers to other writers, as well as biblical and Swedenborgian references. This often disrupts the stream of thought in what he is trying to relate. Whenever he offers an opinion he calls on other sources to validate it. In tomes on religion this is a common practice but authors should give themselves adequate space to develop their own arguments. Otherwise, why should they author the book? As well, a number of propositions are repeated or overlap from one chapter to another. Rabbi Harold Kushner, whose endorsement prominently appears on the book's cover, is relied on excessively to validate the author's point of view. Viktor E Frankl and his book "A Man's Search for Meaning" is likewise excessively cited.
Henderson can't be criticized for Swedenborg's theology, which he represents well, although its presentation also seems helter-skelter. Perhaps it would have been best if he had almost exclusively relied on Swedenborg for his arguments. This book does give the reader insights about how, according to Swedenborg, when bad things--including disasters, disease, disorder and disgrace--happen they are not God's will and that his providence will bring about good things from the bad. Henderson writes: "By living good and useful lives, obeying and living God's commandments, we place ourselves in the stream of his providence. When we cooperate with God in our actions--by being kind and helpful to others, for instance, instead of criticizing or gossiping--we allow his plan of leading to good to work in our lives." p.29 He quotes Swedenborg: "Peace holds within itself trust in the Lord, the trust that he governs all things and provides all things, and that he leads toward an end that is good." p.27
For Christians used to orthodox doctrines there seems to be a neglect here of salvation by grace through faith (refer to Ephesians 2:8-9) or by God's forgiving mercy, such as foretold by Jesus' words to the criminal crucified next to Him: "Truly I say to you, today you shall be with me in Paradise." (Luke 23:43). For Swedenborgians it seems rather that in order to be destined for heaven it is necessary to conscientiously and diligently, over time, choose to follow good and shun evil. For those with Eastern traditional beliefs, including most New Agers, the twin principles of karma and reincarnation explain well the dilemma of why people find themselves in their predicaments, of how past lives' habits, thoughts and actions can be reflected in their present circumstances. Swedenborg's theology, however, leaves no room for such a concept. According to him, each person is born with a clean slate and his or her circumstances can be attributed solely to choices and occurrences made by him or herself, and others, in this life. Accordingly, we live but once and where we end up, heaven or hell, is where we'll stay eternally. Henderson's book is intended to be a positive contribution to how we cope with badness and injustice in our lives and how we view life after death. It could be an excellent book for people who are searching for answers and have few prior spiritual or intellectual commitment to religion. For others, it may be difficult to make the Swedenborgian pieces fit into their partially completed Weltanschauung puzzles.
PS The answer to the title's question? "We keep putting sand in the sandwich!"
Henderson can't be criticized for Swedenborg's theology, which he represents well, although its presentation also seems helter-skelter. Perhaps it would have been best if he had almost exclusively relied on Swedenborg for his arguments. This book does give the reader insights about how, according to Swedenborg, when bad things--including disasters, disease, disorder and disgrace--happen they are not God's will and that his providence will bring about good things from the bad. Henderson writes: "By living good and useful lives, obeying and living God's commandments, we place ourselves in the stream of his providence. When we cooperate with God in our actions--by being kind and helpful to others, for instance, instead of criticizing or gossiping--we allow his plan of leading to good to work in our lives." p.29 He quotes Swedenborg: "Peace holds within itself trust in the Lord, the trust that he governs all things and provides all things, and that he leads toward an end that is good." p.27
For Christians used to orthodox doctrines there seems to be a neglect here of salvation by grace through faith (refer to Ephesians 2:8-9) or by God's forgiving mercy, such as foretold by Jesus' words to the criminal crucified next to Him: "Truly I say to you, today you shall be with me in Paradise." (Luke 23:43). For Swedenborgians it seems rather that in order to be destined for heaven it is necessary to conscientiously and diligently, over time, choose to follow good and shun evil. For those with Eastern traditional beliefs, including most New Agers, the twin principles of karma and reincarnation explain well the dilemma of why people find themselves in their predicaments, of how past lives' habits, thoughts and actions can be reflected in their present circumstances. Swedenborg's theology, however, leaves no room for such a concept. According to him, each person is born with a clean slate and his or her circumstances can be attributed solely to choices and occurrences made by him or herself, and others, in this life. Accordingly, we live but once and where we end up, heaven or hell, is where we'll stay eternally. Henderson's book is intended to be a positive contribution to how we cope with badness and injustice in our lives and how we view life after death. It could be an excellent book for people who are searching for answers and have few prior spiritual or intellectual commitment to religion. For others, it may be difficult to make the Swedenborgian pieces fit into their partially completed Weltanschauung puzzles.
PS The answer to the title's question? "We keep putting sand in the sandwich!"
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews