Is God to Blame?: Moving Beyond Pat Answers to the Problem of Evil

Rating:
Summary: misbegotten theoreology superficially 'satisfying'
Review: with an open Bible on one side and open theism on the other, as rudyard kipling once said, 'never the twain shall meet.' author totally misreads Job. redefines God's sovereignty and omnipotence so they resemble a man-likeness deity as if the Almighty surrendered part of his power (where in the Bible is such a speculative, quasi-process theology notion found??) and somehow emptied himself of what God originally was to allow room for man's free will? God reduced himself and divine attributes/essence (outside of the incarnation of the Son) to accomodate to creatures' power and autonomous sovereignty?? the 'dual-sovereignty-of-the-universe' doctrine?

questions for those who love superb logic and soothingly satisfying re-understandings of the bible's Lord God: if God is not in ultimate, 'has-the-final-say-so' authoritative control of EVERYTHING, including EVIL in his universe down to the micro,personal level of unexplainable tragedy, then mustn't there be some entity outside of his control,beyond his will, which he must compete with and over whom/which he has conceded co-equal or superior co-authority to bring about states of affairs without his knowledge or consent? isn't that simply a reincarnation of Dualism? Goodgod vs. equivalent Evilgod, locked in 'battle-of-equals' combat until the end of time? didn't the Father will the murder of his Son Jesus thru the evil wills of satan and sinners as Peter clearly says in Acts sermons? in what sense can anything, good or evil, happen without God's permission, allowance, granting, like satan's attacking Job? didn't satan have to get God's permission slip? if anything can occur in creation apart from God's permission slip, isn't Jesus' categorical declaration 'no sparrow falling to the ground apart from the will of the Father' thereby nullified as a false witness? that's where this book's 'superb logic' logically, inevitably, unbiblically leads.