Opus 2013-70: Book Review: When Bad Things Happen to Good People, part 4 of 7

This started as a book review but I am going to go into more detail because I see a lot of important distortions going on in a book that has been quoted frequently on both sides of the divide between Christians and Xians.

He makes a very bold statement early in the book. 

“There is only one question which really matters:  why do bad things happen to good people?  All other theological conversation is intellectually diverting; somewhat like doing the crossword puzzle in the Sunday paper and feeling very satisfied when you have made the words fit; but ultimately without the capacity to reach people where they really care.” page 6

So his question, spurred by his personal suffering negates all of the minor questions like, “What is the meaning of life?” and “What happens after I die?”  This doesn’t even make allowance for the big questions from the Hebrew portion of scripture, like,

(Micah 6:8 KJV)  He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?

Or New Testament question like,

(Luke 10:25 KJV)  And, behold, a certain lawyer stood up, and tempted him, saying, Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?

It would seem to me that these are not just”intellectually diverting” “theological conversation.”  It would seem to me that they are the reasons people are drawn to religion.

But then, I am not a famous author.

To be continued...

Kushner, Harold S.  When Bad Things Happen to Good People.  New York:  Schocken Books, 1981.

homo unius libri