Suffering and Hope: The Biblical Vision and the Human Predicament

by Johan Christiaan Beker

This is a 

Genres: Theology

144 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1987

Reviews

[Bob Price · Rating 4 out of 5]

Why do bad things happen and what should our response be? These questions are at the heart of Johan Beker's little book Suffering and Hope.

Not satisfied with the patent answers given by most Christians, (i.e., 'suffering' is God's way of teaching us lessons), Beker wants to dive into the heart of the question of suffering and look for a biblical response to it.

Beker's quick survey reminds us that there is often very little agreement of the various author's views in Scripture. Rather we see a divergence of different opinions and voices that give rise to the testimony and counter-testimony of Scripture. Left with very little to gain from the historical-critical methods of interpretation, Beker instead offers a 'catalytic' interpretative grid for looking at Scripture. This grid takes the original context very seriously, but sees them as a launchpad into broader discussion points.

How are we view suffering? Beker argues that Christians live in between hope and suffering. These two aspects of life are often very present with us but that they exist in close tangent with each other. Surveying the literature, especially from 1 Peter and the letters of Paul, Beker argues that Christian hope must look to the future as it deals existentially with the pain of suffering. God, however, is not a sadist and hates the suffering people must endure.

Beker's brief look at suffering and hope is a good introduction to larger reflections on the topics at hand. He reminds the reader to deal with this subject seriously and points us to to larger reflections on the topic. The main strength of his argument is the complete failure of previous ways of approaching with the topic.

Beker's writing is very clear and concise. While he does refer to Greek and Hebrew terms, he does so in a non-technical way. This makes the book approachable for scholars and non-scholars.

I highly recommend this book for anybody who wants to reflect on suffering in the Christian tradition.

Grade: A

[Spencer · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a short survey of biblical approaches to the question of suffering. It does a good job at charting the "retributive" dimension of the meaning of suffering (bad people get bad things, basically), and then shows how that deepens as the Bible moves into the books of Job, Ecclesiastes, the Psalms, and the Prophets, ultimately, then, in the New Testament. There Beker argues that the hope-oriented apocalytpic understanding of remedial suffering developed in the Prophets becomes a full-fledged theology. Thus, his theodicy is very much eschatological: there is suffering in this world because their is evil in it that God will overthrown one day. He closes his book with a look at Dorothee Soelle and Harold Kusher, both, he says, focus on the How of enduring suffering rather than the Why of it.

So, it is a good short book on the topic.

[Matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very insightful read on suffering that doesn't sound like Job's friends. While I don't embrace the author's views on biblical interpretation wholesale, he does an excellent exegetical analysis of the various responses to suffering taught in the New Testament. His analysis of a truly Christian view of suffering that ties suffering and hope together is very helpful.

[Tim · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good analysis of suffering and hope for Christians but difficult to understand and did not read very smoothly.