N.T. Wright: Meanings of Christmas: In the New World There Will be no More Sea

An excellent piece from the former Bishop of Durham.

People today assume that a “religious” view of life must address “the problem of evil”, the toughest part of which is so-called “natural evil”. Evil isn’t as bad as it seems, say some; or it’s all someone’s fault (or, with natural evil, Satan’s fault); or it offers a chance for greater moral virtue (courage, and so on). One major tsunami does to theories like that what it does to buildings and people: it crushes them to matchwood.

In a culture heavily influenced by Judaism and Christianity, one might have hoped that the Bible would play a part in the discussion. People seem to assume that it’s irrelevant. The general view is that the Bible offers an escape from the world into a personal religion. But that view is itself the result of the Enlightenment’s reductionism.

The Bible itself resists such treatment. It constantly acknowledges evil – “human” and “natural” alike – as a terrible reality. It doesn’t try to minimise it, to explain that good will come of it, or to blame someone (reactions which correspond uncomfortably closely to the excuses offered by immoral or warmongering politicians). It tells a story about the Creator’s plan to put the world to rights, a plan which involves a people who are themselves part of the problem as well as the bearers of the solution.

Read it all.