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 nonexist
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.
ForeWord Magazine Book of the Year Awards, Honorable Mention, Philosophy (2006)
Publishers Weekly
"Writing in a sophisticated, academic style — highlighting the philosophical and theological writings of Voltaire, Aquinas, Dostoyevsky, and Calvin — Hart asks Christians to allow themselves to be moved and horrified by violence, natural or human-made, and, at the same time, to acknowledge that God can and someday will bring about the Kingdom of Heaven on earth. It's an eloquent and persuasive stance."
The Christian Science Monitor
"The Doors of the Sea is timely, eloquent, and unfashionable. Its arguments are missing from public debate — perhaps with tragic results."
The Christian Century
"A moving inquiry into the question of evil, one likely to be a classic. Hart defends the ancient Christian descriptions of evil as nonbeing and of God as immutable, saying that they offer the most theologically coherent and existentially satisfactory account of evil."
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