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{"id":9321,"date":"2023-05-01T15:07:40","date_gmt":"2023-05-01T20:07:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rogereolson\/?p=9321"},"modified":"2023-05-01T15:07:40","modified_gmt":"2023-05-01T20:07:40","slug":"comments-and-cautions-regarding-why","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rogereolson\/2023\/05\/comments-and-cautions-regarding-why\/","title":{"rendered":"Comments and Cautions Regarding \u201cWhy?\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Comments and Cautions Regarding \u201cWhy?\u201d<\/p>\n

$\"\"$ <\/a><\/p>\n

My announced plan is to post a first commentary on \u201cWhy? On Suffering, Guilt and God\u201d by A van de Beek this Thursday (May 4). But, as they say, \u201cMan plans and God laughs.\u201d So, God willing and (as they say in the South) \u201cthe creek don\u2019t rise,\u201d I still plan on that. However, I do have a doctor\u2019s appointment this week and\u2026. So please do not be dismayed if the planned first installment does not appear on time.<\/p>\n

Please do not be discouraged by the first few chapters of \u201cWhy?\u201d You might be tempted to ask \u201cWhy so many words that don\u2019t go anywhere?\u201d Like most European (at least Germanic and Dutch) theologians, van de Beek takes his time getting around to his thesis. He has to talk first about the problem implied in the title and some traditional Christian \u201csolutions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Here is a little teaser. What if it were possible to do theology simply as non-philosophical interpretation of the biblical story? Is this a kind of \u201cnarrative theology?\u201d (Van de Beek does not say that it is.) What if it were possible to set aside the long history and tradition of theology relying on \u201cperfect being ontology\u201d and just go with what the Bible says and implies about God and us? What if God is more like us than like Plato\u2019s form of \u201cThe Good\u201d or Aristotle\u2019s \u201cUnmoved Mover\u201d or Hegel\u2019s \u201cAbsolute Spirit?\u201d What if, for example, in his \u201cencounter\u201d with free and sinful creatures made in his own image and likeness but rebellious, God experienced frustration and had to change\u2014not became \u201cbecoming is more fundamental than being\u201d (Heraclitus to Whitehead) but because his ways were not working?<\/p>\n

*Note: Don\u2019t refer to or quote from the book yet. Please wait until I have posted my first commentary on the book\u2014Part 1 Introduction.*<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"