These posts of mine on Hart's book Doors of the Sea have generated a goodly amount of comments. So before considering his next section, allow me a quick comment on one point that has surfaced in those comments, I believe more than once. An attempt has been made to distinguish … [Read more...]

In the next section, we come to the hinge of Hart's objections. And it provides us with a textbook case of what happens when very intelligent people go beyond what it is written. Certain indisputable truths provide the premises for them, and then they reason from those premises … [Read more...]

Yesterday's message was on Psalm 42. The title comes from verse 7 -- "Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy waterspouts: all thy waves and thy billows are gone over me." This is just one of many passages that has direct relevance to our on-going discussions in the "Doors of … [Read more...]

Hart's second section in the second half of his book depends almost entirely on good writing, a goodly dose of mysticism and lots of handwaving. Here is how that section concludes: "It is impossible for the infinite God of love directly or positively to will evil (physical or … [Read more...]

The second part of Hart's book is his positive statement of "Divine Victory." The first section of this second half sets the pieces on the board for us. "To behave or live according to nature is for some of us the very definition of sagacity, sanity, or even virtue" (p. … [Read more...]

The fifth section of The Doors of the Sea contains Hart's central concerns with inadequate Christian theodicies (as he considers them), and is the section where he showcases Ivan Karamazov's rebellion against God. "This is the splendid perversity and genius of Ivan's (or … [Read more...]

In his fourth section, Hart begins to interact with certain expressions of Calvinism. The Calvinists Hart was responding to are represented but not named, and since there are no footnotes to follow, I am puzzled over how to respond to this. Unvarnished Calvinism is hard for some … [Read more...]

In his next section of The Doors of the Sea, Hart starts with a discussion of Voltaire's "exquisite savagery" in his famous poem that made fun of certain popular theodicies in the wake of the devastating Lisbon earthquake. "If indeed the theodicist would have us believe that … [Read more...]