Ellen's review
When Bad Things Happen to Good People by Harold S. Kushner
I wish I could say that this book answers the question posed by its title. Instead, it is more of lesson on how "God" doesn't cause bad things - humans do. If this a concept unfamiliar to you then you might find this book mind opening and perhaps relieving. On the other hand, if you already felt this way, then this book might seem a bit elementary and disappointing. However, I give this book four stars for two reasons. One, the author seems like the coolest rabbi around. He seems to "get" it - something very few clergy members seem to do. Seccond, the very end of the book comes to the conclusion that it doesn't really matter why something bad happens, instead it matters how we respond to a tragedy and what we do afterwards. Afterall, what else is there to do? You can squander your life away with angrer, confusion, and isolation. Or you can accept that, yes the world is full of unfair and imperfect events and people, but it is also capable of being full of beauty, lo...more
Actually, If you are looking at things from the Judeo-Christian perspective, what the 'good rabbi' is in fact saying is that God is NOT all-powerful, and actually is taking the "Creator forms world, people and all - and then proceeds to not have control over it, removing himself from any part of His creation's future" view. It is troubling to most Jewish and Christian thinkers to imagine that a well-learned man such as Kushner, would assert such a view, which is both irrational and sacrilege. I thought this book was very well-written, an interesting worldview, and certainly questions one of the most troublesome questions ever to be, but it does not offer up a satisfactory answer to this question. Why believe in an all-powerful creator, who was keen enough to create you - and then not able to control the ultimate destiny of the world? Why believe at all, if that is your view of such a weak God?
I do agree with you (and he) that what matters is not the 'why', but the 'what' and 'how' we respond to the circumstances, but he only gets it half right. Is it not more logical to think that a Creator, with the ablility to conjure up such a world, would also have some notion as to why He created it all, and therefore, a notion of some 'Endgame' when history completes itself? Is it not just possible that in some way, too large for us to understand it fully ourselves, the Creator is in control of what comes of His creation ultimately?
