Book Brief: The God I Don’t Understand

Christopher J.H. Wright is International Director of the Langham Partnership International where he has taken on the role played by John Stott for thirty years. He has written a number of books, some of them quite impressive. This briefer book (220 pages) is Wright’s attempt to tackle four hard questions. 1) What about evil and suffering? 2) What about the Canaanites? 3) What about the cross? 4) What about the end of the world?

There is a lot to like about this book. Wright is a sympathetic questioner, without settling for a “doubt is wonderful” kind of apologetic. The writing is pastoral and intelligent. His theology is pretty mainstream evangelical (though with a few questions, see below).

His chapters on the Canaanites and the cross are the best. He affirms God’s right to judge the Canaanites for the wickedness, while emphasizing that God promised to do the same to his own people if they disobeyed. And on the cross, Wright defends penal substitution and as a wonderful discussion on the difference between guilt and shame (and why the language of shame is not enough).

These strengths notwithstanding, there were also a few of curiosities about the book. For example, what does Wright mean when he defines the devil as “an objective, intelligent and ‘quasi-personal’ power” (38)?  And, does God just turn evil from good, or does he also ordain evil that good may come to pass (62)?  Similarly, I was surprised to read that Wright doesn’t believe natural disasters are a part of God’s curse on the earth as a result of the fall (46-47).  He doesn’t think there is any “right” explanation as to why natural disasters happen. Further, given Stott’s embrace of annihilationism, I kept waiting in the final chapters for Wright to talk more specifically about eternal punishment. He clearly affirms the concepts of hell and judgment, but he speaks of them in terms of punishment, destruction, and separation from God (191). It was never clear if this meant eternal conscience torment or the end of existence for the wicked.

The God I Don’t Understand is a good book that tackles some hard questions, and does an excellent job on a couple of them. It is especially helpful on the cross. But I marked up my book with enough question marks to make me hesitant to recommend this book without a few cautions.