Evil And the Justice of God

Disappointed 2010-03-04

Reviewer: Gerald W. Ford

Wright has written much better material than this. This book presents as just another opportunity to bash George W. Bush, undeservedly in my opinion. I was very sad to see it purported to be a serious discussion. It also saddened me that a theologian would participate in this activity.

Existentially, if not always intellectually, satisfying 2010-02-24

Reviewer: Jared Totten

In Evil and the Justice of God, N.T. Wright enters the conversation of the problem and origin of evil traditionally dominated by the philosophers. However, by offering a fresh--and, at times, unorthodox--approach, Wright brings an offering that makes a reasonable contribution to the conversation.

Wright doesn't seem to approach anything head-on, which is at the same time this book's greatest strength and greatest weakness. He seems often to talk around the subject, but in this way he does cover material that doesn't always get included in the traditional conversation. In this way, the train of thought does go somewhere, even if it feels meandering at times, and the journey is often worthwhile.

On occasion the vagueness can be distracting and even confusing. While he believes evil is a very real thing, it is unclear whether Wright believes the Devil (or "the satan" with a lower-case "s" as he says) or demons are real beings. Not that this idea is integral to the understanding of either the problem or the origin of evil, but as often as "the satan" comes up, it is confusing in such impersonal terms.

InterVarsity Press was kind enough to send me the new Special Edition of the book that includes the DVD on the back cover simply entitled Evil. While the DVD is a good supplement to the book and certainly an excellent tool for a small group discussion, I am glad it accompanies the book because it moves through the material too quickly to standing alone.

In both the book and DVD, the main solution to the problem of evil offered is this: "Forgiveness, then--including God's forgiveness of us, our forgiveness of one another and our forgiveness even of ourselves--is a central part of the deliverance of evil". While this conclusion may be incomplete as a full answer, this was never what Wright set out to accomplish in the first place.

In the end, while Evil and the Justice of God may be less intellectually satisfying than it's more philosophical/theological counterparts, it is at times more existentially satisfying. Wright succeeds in joining the conversation and covering territory that has largely gone unexplored.

This book was a free review copy provided by InterVarsity Press.

Injustice to both Evil and God 2009-12-28

Reviewer: Ed

I found this book to be a severe disappointment: an injustice to both Evil and God.

After careful study of the author's sourcings, creative mistranslations of Bible verses, anti-conservative non-evangelical orientation, lopsided reliance on non-canonical texts to drive his revisionist retro-to-Rome scholarship favoring rabbinic 2nd temple data contra canonical Scripture plain-taught historic confessional theology, and inferior historian assumptions leading to revisionism and reductionism, his theorized hypothesis is unsustainable.

He doesn't seem to grasp the drastic seriousness of the Fall, human sin nature and consequences of our evil for the planet. Because of his distorted low-grade engagement with sin in the sinner's soul, he doesn't quite see the Cross and Christ's substitute-sacrifice (see Romans, Hebrews) Gospel as necessary for this life, eternal life in God's Kingdom and is thus inadequate to face the reality of Judgment Day when the Lord Jesus returns as Righteous Chief Justice of Creation.

His attempt at outlining a cogent comprehensive cohesive theodicy fails to rise to canonical Scripture standard of reliability.

Some of his fans naively suppose that by church-goers acting more like Christ, then most evil will disappear. Of course, the author rejects a personal Satan or real demonic beings, so human evil is all that needs to be dealt with, all due respect to C.S.Lewis. Lewis said we must avoid 2 equal opposite errors: unhealthy preoccupation with devil and dismissing him as imaginary figment (Wright's view leans NearEast ancient myth). The enemy of our souls hails a magician and a materialist with equal delight. To paraphrase a poem by Thomas Hardy, a skeptic Brit whose twilight years of severe cynicism reflected on the War to End All Wars in the bloody trenches of France and Flanders:

" Peace on earth we say; we sing it - and pay a million priests to bring it.
After two-thousand years of mass we've got as far as poison-gas."

So much for Wright's universalist-utopian theory that if believers acted better and believed better, things on earth would be better. Even if that were true, hypothetically or practically, faithfully adherent professing Christendom only covers 10%-20% at most of earth's 7 billion population. What then of trying to contain/mitigate the evil of non-Christendom's 80%-90% vast majority of humanity? What of Satan's evil as extensively described in Revelation of St. John?

Job was not given serious attention here either. See James 5 for apostolic nod to believers and knock to skeptics re suffering under curse in a blessed God's world.

Wright seems to be one of the most Rome-leaning Anglicans since John Henry Newman switched allegiance from Canterbury for Vatican and a cardinal's cap. Especially how he ecumenically compromisingly de-reformationally retranslates Bible verses to suit his de-protestantizing protestantism programmed agenda.

Evil and the Justice of God Review 2009-12-15

Reviewer: Andy Szymas

I suppose I find it hard to believe that I've never actually read a book by N.T. Wright. I've been aware of him for a long time, but I've never actually sat down to read any of his works. I've heard him quoted in books, in classes, in conversations, but until now, I didn't really know whether he was a good theologian or a good writer or both.
Now, I feel confident in saying that Wright is both. His theology (at least in Evil and the Justice of God) is quite strong, and it is clear he puts a lot of thought and research into his work. Yet Wright also manages to be understandable, which is something that many other theologians seem to lack. I felt comfortable reading his book without the Bible in one hand and a dictionary in the other, to say it in better words.
As for this book itself, I found it to be a great treatise on the problem of evil. It moves and flows in a very natural progression; from examining (that there is) the problem of evil, and moving towards solutions on personal and communal levels. I particularly liked Wrights conclusions about how Evil exhausted itself on the cross - that it spent everything it had in an still desperate attempt to tempt Jesus and failed.
All in all, an excellent book. I would give a book a good review for managing to make theology readable, and this book goes above and beyond that. Truely excellent, and I give it 5/5.

This review posted on [...]and amazon.com; I wish to thank IVP for the review copy.

Concise and informative 2009-12-07

Reviewer: Agustin Grana

I'm a huge N.T. Wright fan. I try to read all of his stuff. Evil and the Justice of God is a short summary of his other works. N.T. Wright does a great job of truly drilling down to the true meaning of evil while humbly expressing that he does not have a satisfying answer for everything. He builds his view from Scripture in such a way that he truly allows Scripture to define evil on its own and eventually how it is dealt with. If you've read N.T. Wright before he's not the easiest read but he does an incredible job of reiterating himself before moving on. Loved it!