Evil and the Justice of God
Reviewed date: 2008 Jul 13
176 pages
Evil and the Justice of God may be a thin book but it's not easy reading. N.T. Wright packs it full of big ideas. He writes clearly and succinctly, but the theological concepts are of such import that they cannot help but be complex.
Too bad I couldn't figure out what the book is about. It's about evil, sure, but I never quite understood what N.T. Wright was trying to say about it. He waxed eloquent about how the line of evil runs through all of us, but he didn't seem to be saying anything new or notable (at least not that I picked up on.)
I'm not quite sure what to make of N.T. Wright's comments about the cross, and how substitutional atonement isn't the whole story. Maybe not, but if you stray from substitutionary atonement, you've corrupted the gospel. Finally, N.T. Wright's last chapter on the nature of forgiveness seems strangely out of place. He offers some good thoughts, but none of it appears to bear directly on the question of evil.
Possibly I don't understand what N.T. Wright was getting at in his book. Or maybe I just see the world in simpler terms.