TULOG – Chapter 1: Tragedy Need Explanation

The Uncontrolling Love of God – (1) Tragedy Needs Explanation

As I share some observations and thoughts regarding Thomas Jay Oord’s book, The Uncontrolling Love of God—hereafter referred to as TULOG—I want you, the reader, to know that I am not proposing what I believe to be the truth about God’s nature or God’s work in this world. Rather, I am vulnerably sharing my faith journey as I wrestle with my own theology.

For a long time, I have experienced classic cognitive dissonance when I would read or hear Christians respond to tragic events with “God is in control,” or “God has a plan for your life,” or “God works all things together for good,” etc. Even when I read biblical passages such as Genesis 50:20 or Romans 8:28, it would strike me that I had absolutely no evidence that God was working through tragic situations in the world (or in my life) for the world’s (or my) good.

In Chapter 1 of TULOG, Oord recounts four specific, and fairly recent, examples of tragic events (the bomb blasts at the Boston marathon, a small rock smashing through a car windshield, a child born with a rare genetic syndrome, and a woman whose husband and children were murdered before she was raped and left for dead). He questions we all have had, when hearing about or experiencing similar suffering: “If a loving and powerful God exists, why doesn’t this God prevent genuinely evil events?” and “How can a loving and powerful God be providential if random and chance events occur [especially those with tragic consequences]?” (p. 17). Oord notes the main reason people give up or reject faith in God is that people cannot reconcile faith in a loving and powerful God with the impact that evil has on this world (p. 25).

The typical answers that Christians give are attempts to reconcile their belief in a loving and powerful God with the presence and impact of evil on people’s lives. But simply stating that “God is in control” or “It was meant to be” or “God has a plan” just doesn’t cut it for most of us, if we’re being intellectually honest.  So, Christians seek for biblical proof texts—often taken out of context—that will help them trust in a God who has a purpose and plan for causing (or allowing) incidents to occur that bring immeasurable suffering to people’s lives, physically, emotionally, spiritually, financially and/or relationally.

Presently, COVID-19 is causing untold suffering to billions of people. For most of us who live in a country like Canada—with a democratically elected government that is trying to do what it can to respond to the health and financial challenges facing its 36 million citizens—this pandemic is difficult enough. Around the world, millions are contracting this virus and hundreds of thousands are dying. Many of those who don’t die, don’t fully recover but are experiencing chronic (and perhaps permanent) health issues. Those who are suffering most are not the wealthiest people in North America and Europe. Rather it is those in every country who are impoverished, physically ailing, elderly, orphaned, marginalized, disenfranchised, living in war zones, refugees, etc.

Where is God? What is God doing to, at the very least, help the billions who cannot help themselves? Untold billions of prayers have been fervently and faithfully offered as people of all faiths (and even no faith) are begging God to do something to eradicate the virus or at least limit its impact, especially on the world’s most vulnerable. Yet, God does not seem to hear, or if God hears, God doesn’t seem to be acting. Is God not an all-knowing, all-loving, all-powerful and everywhere present supreme Being? I agree with Oord, the tragedies that occur by the millions—not just the pandemic—during every rotation of the earth on its axis, require some kind of explanation. I have to “confess” that traditional, “proof texting” explanations that God is in control or that God has a plan or that God is at work behind the scenes do not satisfy me and haven’t for a very long time.

"He's Got the Whole World in His Hands"?

Thus, in the hope of reading a theory that makes sense biblical and experientially, I venture into Chapter 2 of TULOG – The Randomness and Regularities of Life.

Is God In Control?

The story of Joseph and his brothers comprises more than 1/4 of the Genesis narrative. Why does the author of Genesis give so much attention to this one patriarch, over and above all others? To quote James L. Kugel:

"In short, to modern scholars, Joseph looks like the very model of the ancient Near Eastern sage. Indeed, he is the only one of Israel's ancestors who is called "wise" ... and throughout his whole story of ups and downs ... Joseph reveals that cardinal sagely virtue of patience. An ancient Near eastern sage was patient precisely because he believed that everything in this world happens according to the divine plan; things will always, therefore, turn out for the best, no matter how bade they may appear now. To scholars, the Joseph story thus looks like an altogether didactic tale designed not only to capture people's attention but to encapsulate, and inculcate, the basic ideology of wisdom" (How to Read the Bible, 183).

The story of Joseph is one of the main texts used by modern day Christians to support their belief that God is so in control that no matter what happens in one's life, good or evil, God always works it out for the good of his people. After all, when Joseph forgave his brothers, who feared his reprisals, he said to them, "And now do not be distressed, or angry with yourselves, because you sold me here; for God sent me before you to preserve life" (Gen 45:5). and, again, after Jacob's death, Joseph's brothers need his reassurance that he will do them no harm: "Do not be afraid! Am I in the place of God? Even though you intended to do harm to me God intended it for good, in order to preserve a numerous people, as he is doing today" (Gen 50:20).

No more than now, in the midst of all the suffering and uncertainty of a global pandemic, the rise of powerful autocrats and the increase of violent protests, do I hear (and read) Christians proclaiming that "God is in control." But what do they mean when they say, "God is in control"? And for whom do they believe God is working good? And what about those people–especially the impoverished, the elderly, the orphans, the refugees, the marginalized, the disenfranchised, etc.–who are suffering the most right now? How is God working for their good?

One theologian, with whom I have become familiar, is promoting a perspective on God's nature and work in this world that challenges the traditionalist view that God is in control and is working all things together for good. His name is Thomas Jay Oord. Prior to the present and specific global challenges, he wrote the book, "The Uncontrolling Love of God: An Open and Relational Account of Providence." (A more popular version of this book is titled, "God Can't: How to Believe in God and Love after Tragedy, Abuse, and Other Evils.")

In upcoming posts, I will review "The Uncontrolling Love of God," chapter-by-chapter, because the idea that God is in control and working out all things for good just doesn't fit with my 64 years of my life experience nor with my observation of events in this world over the last 7 decades. I, like Oord, believe we need a very different understanding of God's nature and how God works in this world, if we are going to hold to the idea that “love” is at the heart of God’s nature.

The Hebrew Bible: A Translation and Commentary by Robert Alter

As I mentioned in a FB post, quite excitedly, a few days ago, I have started reading through The Hebrew Bible: A Translation and Commentary by Robert Alter. One may wonder why Alter felt another translation of the Hebrew Bible was justified, and why I am so excited about it. He writes, "The present translation is an experiment in re-presenting the Bible...in a language that conveys with some precision the semantic nuances and the lively orchestration of literary effects of the Hebrew and at the same time has stylistic and rhythmic integrity as literary English." He goes on, "...the modern English versions...have placed readers at a grotesque distance from the distinctive literary experience of the Bible in its original language."

He explains what he considers to be the problem with most modern English translations as follows: "The unacknowledged heresy underlying most modern English versions of the Bible is the use of translation as a vehicle for explaining the Bible instead of representing it in another language, and in the most egregious instances this amounts to explaining away the Bible." Alter adds to his translation, succinct but clarifying commentary that explains the choices he has made.

If the price of his translation of the entire Hebrew Bible is beyond your means (and it isn’t cheap), portions can be purchased such as: "The Five Books of Moses," "The Wisdom Books: Job, Proverbs and Ecclesiastes," "The Book of Psalms," etc. These are each quite affordable, especially in paperback and kindle editions.

To, perhaps, whet your appetite, I’ve included  a comparison of translations of Genesis 1:1–2 and 1:26–27, from the New International Version (NIV), the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV), the NET Bible and Alter’s Translation, broken down in short phrases for ease of comparison. While nothing revolutionary is found in Alter’s translation of these passages, I still think the careful reader can see some subtle differences (underlined) that call for explanation—as per his commentary.

Comparison of Translations

Gen 1:1–2	NIV	NRSV	NET Bible	Alter’s Translation
	In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.	In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth,	In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.	When God began to create heaven and earth,
	Now the earth was formless and empty,	the earth was a formless void	Now the earth was without shape and empty,	and the earth then was welter and waste
	darkness was over the surface of the deep	and darkness covered the face of the deep,	and darkness was over the surface of the watery deep,	and darkness over the deep
	and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.	while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters.	but the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the water.	and God’s breath hovering over the waters,
Gen 1:26–27	NIV	NRSV	NET Bible	Alter’s Translation
	Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness,	Then God said, “Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness;	Then God said, “Let us make humankind in our image, after our likeness,	And God said, “Let us make a human in our image, by our likeness,
	and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air,	and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air,	so that they may rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air,	to hold sway over the fish of the sea and the fowl of the heavens
	over the livestock, over all the earth	and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth,	over the cattle, and over all the earth,	and the cattle and the wild beasts
	and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”	and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.”	and over all the creatures that move on the earth.”	and all the crawling things that crawl upon the earth.”
	So, God created man in his own image,	So, God create humankind in his image,	God created humankind in his own image,	And God created the human in his image,
	in the image of God he created him;	in the image of God he created them;	in the image of God he created them,	in the image of God He created him,
	male and female he created them.	male and female he created them.	male and female he created them.	male and female He created them.

Robert Alter is Professor in the Graduate School and Emeritus Professor of Hebrew and Comparative Literature at the University of California at Berkeley, where he has taught since 1967.  He has written widely on the European novel from the eighteenth century to the present, on contemporary American fiction, and on modern Hebrew literature.   He has also written extensively on literary aspects of the Bible.

His “Introductions” to the Hebrew Bible, and the various segments and biblical books, contain some words that most of us do not use in our day-to-day verbal or written communication. But the information and insight that the “Introductions” provide are priceless, if one is willing to utilize a good English dictionary from time-to-time. Alter does not spoon feed his readers but challenges them to ponder and reflect. The end result is more than worth the effort.