Evil and the Problem of God

Beliefnet has a current debate up between biblical scholars Bart Ehrman and N.T. Wright on the problem of evil and how or why God allows it to happen. Ehrman, whose personal spiritual journey has taken him from conservative Christian to agnostic, has a book out on the subject: God's Problem, where he looks at the many different answers to the problem of evil found in the scriptures and finds God wanting. Wright has also addressed the issue in some of his books, including Evil and the Justice of God. He thinks the Bible provides an adequate answer to the problem of evil.

I hope to paste more on the subject soon; I need to get some real work done now; but via James McGrath's blog I saw this very good post at the blog Find and Ye Shall Seek. Read the whole thing. Money quote at the end:

Again, I think that all of this would much more easily be solved by simply affirming that God's nature is not that of a supernatural interventionist who has the power to act upon the world from the outside if he/she so decides to, but rather as a creative force that acts through the natural world, through persuasion rather than coercion. Take away the idea of God as omnipotent supernatural interventionist, and the problem of theodicy goes away.

Giving up on the belief in an all-powerful God who could do something about the problem of evil if he/she wanted to, but for whatever reason doesn't is so hard to do. But it is so freeing.