Today I just finished reading a new book by N.T. Wright — Evil and the Justice of God. I have quibbles and quabbles here and there, but the book as a whole is simply magnificent. If you want a treatment of the problem of evil that functions within the categories of biblical theology, and concludes with a pastoral charge to accept the discipleship of forgiveness, with that charge making wonderful sense in the context of God’s plan for the world, this is the book.
My quibbles would have been more significant if Wright had done more than simply use some of his “issues” (third world debt forgiveness, say) as anything more than passing illustrations. As it is, you can just make a mental adjustment and enjoy the scenery behind the illustration. It is kind of like driving past the Grand Tetons with a particularly large bug on the windshield. You make the best of it, which is not hard to do.
So, just one quick comment about the bug. Two of Wright’s socio-political concerns are third world debt forgiveness and the growth of American empire. Incidentally, I fully share his concern about the latter. The problem is that these two concerns, as he presents them, are inconsistent. Say we do what Wright urges, and forgive all the debts. What about the future? What about next time? If Western bank officers behave as they have done in the past (like drunken chimpanzees) and loan money willy-nilly to dictators in the Third World, we will have the same situation we have now — unpayable debt, racked up to the ceiling. Okay, so don’t do that. If they say that they won’t loan any money at all any more, because look what happened last time, then we have major development crises in the Third World, and a new beef against the stingy West. And I have little doubt that we could find a bishop or two to find the closed accounts reprehensible. But third, if we loan money responsibly, with enforceable conditions attached, so that money loaned for agricultural development will not wind up funding some Col. Mumbwabe’s new helicopters, then we are behaving like . . . empire. Which takes us back to Wright’s other concern.
I say all this, but the Grand Tetons remain magnificent, and I urge you to get the book. There are some other things, but I will shut up about it.