Bart D. Ehrman “God’s Problem: How the Bible Fails to Answer Our Most Important Question–Why We Suffer”
HarperOne | 2008-03-01 | ISBN:0061173975 | 304 pages | PDF | 1,5 Mb
In times of questioning and despair, people often quote the Bible to provide answers. Surprisingly, though, the Bible does not have one answer but many “answers” that often contradict one another. Consider these competing explanations for suffering put forth by various biblical writers:
The prophets: suffering is a punishment for sin
The book of Job, which offers two different answers: suffering is a test, and you will be rewarded later for passing it; and suffering is beyond comprehension, since we are just human beings and God, after all, is God
Ecclesiastes: suffering is the nature of things, so just accept it
All apocalyptic texts in both the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament: God will eventually make right all that is wrong with the world
For renowned Bible scholar Bart Ehrman, the question of why there is so much suffering in the world is more than a haunting thought. Ehrman’s inability to reconcile the claims of faith with the facts of real life led the former pastor of the Princeton Baptist Church to reject Christianity.

In God’s Problem, Ehrman discusses his personal anguish upon discovering the Bible’s contradictory explanations for suffering and invites all people of faith—or no faith—to confront their deepest questions about how God engages the world and each of us.

Alternative links:

***************************

**************************************************
Bart D. Ehrman - Fiction In The Da Vinci Code(Audio Lectures)

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
M.Div., Ph.D., Princeton Theological Seminary

Bart D. Ehrman is the James A. Gray Professor and Chair of the Department of Religious Studies at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he has been teaching for over 15 years. He completed his undergraduate work at Wheaton College and received his Masters of Divinity and Ph.D. from Princeton Theological Seminary. Prior to taking his position at UNC, Professor Ehrman taught at Rutgers University…

We have commissioned two lectures on “Fact and Fiction in The Da Vinci Code ” from biblical expert Professor Bart D. Ehrman of The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

One of our most popular professors, Professor Ehrman (Ph.D., Princeton Theological Seminary) is a 15-year teaching veteran at UNC and winner of several teaching awards. He is the author of the leading textbook on the New Testament, as well as four courses for The Teaching Company.

The Da Vinci Code has remained on The New York Times bestseller list now for more than 50 weeks. Even though it is a work of fiction, it contains an ostensibly historical background involving early Christianity. But what is fact and what is fiction? Join Professor Ehrman to understand the historical evidence behind such topics as the formation of the Christian Bible, Jesus’ relationship with Mary Magdalene, and the role of the emperor Constantine in shaping the religion of the historical Jesus.