Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Evil and the Justice of God Review

Evil and the Justice of God by NT Wright
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 andyszymas.blogspot.com and amazon.com; I wish to thank IVP for the review copy.

1 comment:

John Jurries said...

Good review. I'd also highly recommend "Surprised by Hope" by Wright. It's one of his most popular books, and for good reason: it offers a wonderful theology of life on the New Heavens and New Earth that's far more captivating (and biblical!) than the popular 'floating around on clouds' image.