David Bentley Hart

Developing his short piece in the "Wall Street Journal" following the horrific recent Asian tsunami, Hart again takes up this pressing question: How can the existence of a good and loving God be reconciled with such suffering?

Where Was God in the Tsunami?

The Doors of the Sea

As news reports of the horrific December 2004 tsunami in Asia reached the rest of the world, commentators were quick to seize upon the disaster as proof of either God s power or God s nonexistence, asking over and over, How could a good and loving God if such exists allow such suffering? In The Doors of the Sea David Bentley Hart speaks at once to those skeptical of Christian faith and to those who use their Christian faith to rationalize senseless human suffering. He calls both to recognize in the worst catastrophes not the providential will of God but rather the ongoing struggle between the rebellious powers that enslave the world and the God who loves it wholly.

Jonathan Tysick

Hart writes in complex prose, packed full of wit, spunk and big adjectives/adverbs (I'm glad I read it on an e-reader with a built in dictionary!). Once I got used to the writing style I quite enjoyed this. Really excellent reflections on matters of theodicy and overall a very helpful little book. Confirmed that (a) I am not a Calvinist, (b) Eastern theology is fascinating and rich and (c) that we need to make a distinction between divine will and divine permission (contra Calvin).

The Doors of the Sea Where Was God in the Tsunami?

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