ipl-logo

Hart The Doors Of The Sea Summary

584 Words3 Pages

David Bentley Hart’s, “The Doors of the Sea”, attempts to unravel a perplexity that has theologians at odds. In this work, Hart explores the horrible tsunami that occurred in 2004, which unfortunately devastated part of South East Asia. The result of this horrific act against humanity raises a few questions concerning the belief of a loving and divine being. Hart attempts to explain how a Christian God, who is all powerful and righteous, could allow such an evil act to claim the lives of so many innocent people. Some insist that the cruelty of this act is a sign that there is no God; while, others maintain that this horrid display of power proves without a doubt there must be a higher being. Hart tries to dismiss both of the previous notions …show more content…

First, Hart says this about all of Gods creations, “an endless sea of glory, radiant with the beauty of God in every part, innocent of all violence” (Hart, 60). Clearly, Hart is reiterating a foundational belief of the Christian faith, that God is dominant and virtuous. Later on, Hart asserts another well-known belief of the Christian faith, “that the will of God cannot ultimately be defeated…” (Hart, 66). Again, Hart argues that God is an all-powerful being that controls the entirety of everything. The problem with this is that Hart begins to stare away from these irrefutable truths. He begins to contradict his first claims and thus, raises some unanswerable questions. Hart starts his argument in the second section by claiming, “Nevertheless, and disturbing as it may be, it is clearly the case that there is a kind of “provisional” cosmic dualism… a conflict between a sphere of created autonomy that strives against God on the on hand and the saving love of God in time on the other” (Hart, 62). If God is all controlling and all powerful, how can their possibly be any other “provisional” source that contradicts his

Show More
Related

  • Analysis Of The Glass Castle By Jeannette Walls

    1147 Words  | 5 Pages

    The Glass Castle is a memoir written by Jeannette Walls which describes her family’s troublesome past. When examining one of Jeannette’s childhood bullies, and her dad whipping her with a belt, it becomes apparent that even the worst experiences can have a valuable gift wrapped inside if you’re willing to receive it. The Walls kids came across numerous bullies throughout their childhood. When living in Welch, one of them was Ernie Goad, who made fun of the kids because of their poor living conditions.

    Read More

  • Sinners In The Hands Of An Angry God Rhetorical Analysis

    290 Words  | 2 Pages

    In Jonathan Edwards' fiery sermon "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God," he describes the horrible fate of those who do not open their hearts to God. He accomplishes this by employing the persuasive techniques of fear and guilt and by creating frightening imagery. By repeatedly reminding his parishioners of God's anger and their transgressions, Edwards uses fear and guilt to accomplish his goal. Edwards states that the unconverted "are now the objects of that very same anger and wrath of God" to demonstrate the abhorrence God has for them. God's anger and the consequences of transgressions are used repeatedly to produce fear; Edwards actively induces fear by describing the dead unconverted as "those who are now in the flames of hell."

    Read More

  • Summary Of Evil And Omnipotence By J. L Mackie

    777 Words  | 4 Pages

    Mackie starts off by claiming this reply limits God’s supposed abilities. If God is incapable of creating good without also creating evil, then how can God be omnipotent? Logically, he cannot. Mackie also states that the idea of evil being a counterpart to good creates relativism between the two and become forms of comparison. This ignites the idea that God believes not in goodness but in the better.

    Read More

  • Stump's Two Constraints Of Suffering

    1054 Words  | 5 Pages

    Stump’s two constraints of suffering, argues Draper, could not be taken place automatically in human experience. There is a group of people who cannot be justified by the negative benefit of harm prevention since they are sufficiently far away from the process of sanctification, and from the treatment of permanent separation with God. There are also those who do not consent to suffer for the future benefit of deeper union with God . Moreover, it is quite difficult to know how God knows exactly the human reaction to situations of suffering before allowing

    Read More

  • Night The Word Sage By Elie Wiesel

    579 Words  | 3 Pages

    A “simple creature of flesh and bone”(76-77) is not seen as being capable of understanding god’s will. Unlike god a person’s views may be warped by emotion; someone may “suffer hell in [their] soul and [their] flesh.”(77) After the death of Akida Drummer the prisoners forget to pray for him as a direct result of their own suffering. Unlike a god they have been rendered unable to fulfill their promise to their friend because of their own emotional trauma. Sorrow and other emotional responses are described as a force capable of destroying one’s ability to reason. Furthermore humankind is not seen as having adequate trust in god’s will.

    Read More

  • Ted Steinberg Acts Of God Analysis

    542 Words  | 3 Pages

    In summary, the first two chapters of Acts of God focus on disaster-prone parts of the U.S. and provides a critical foundation for understanding human-environmental interactions related to natural calamity – economic, social, cultural, and

    Read More

  • Socrates And Euthyphro's Argument Analysis

    893 Words  | 4 Pages

    Theorists opposing this argument hold that morality is not dependent on the will of God. These theorists limit God’s omnipotence is stating clearly that he cannot make what is wrong, right. The theorists then suggest that God has to bend His will to conform to what is right. They hold that God wills what is morally right because it is right. In this argument, I take the stand that morality is what God wills it to

    Read More

  • Problem Of Evil Mackie Analysis

    1089 Words  | 5 Pages

    The existence of God has been presented by a multitude of philosophers. However, this has led to profound criticism and arguments of God’s inexistence. The strongest argument in contradiction to God’s existence is the Problem of Evil, presented by J.L Mackie. In this paper, I aim to describe the problem of evil, analyse the objection of the Paradox of Omnipotence and provide rebuttals to this objection. Thus, highlighting my support for Mackie’s Problem of evil.

    Read More

  • Argumentative Essay: The Problem Of Evil

    877 Words  | 4 Pages

    On the other hand, theists like Swinburne, believe that evil is necessary for important reasons such as that it helps us grow and improve. In this paper I will argue that the theist is right, because the good of the evil in this specific case on problems beyond one’s control, outweighs the bad that comes from it. I will begin by stating the objection the anti-theodicist gives for why it is wrong that there is a problem of evil. (<--fix) Regarding passive evil not caused by human action, the anti-theodicist claims that there is an issue with a creator, God, allowing a world to exist where evil things happen, which are not caused by human beings (180-181).

    Read More

  • Cultural Differences Between Good And Evil

    1242 Words  | 5 Pages

    (Muncaster – Religion Lecture, 2016). Meanwhile, Christianity states there is only one god oppose to other religions that state the opposite. Due to the various amounts of moral disagreements between religions, it makes it quite difficult to believe in universal truths as everyday we encounter contradictions that exist within religions in explaining the meaning of good and

    Read More

  • Gospel Essentials Research Paper

    1557 Words  | 7 Pages

    But God loved his people so much that his Son, Jesus Christ came to earth to make them right with God by dying on the cross to wash away all of their sins, and through God’s grace, they received salvation and restored their heart relationship with God. In this paper, I will discuss within the context of the Christian worldview who God is, what

    Read More

  • Mackie's Evil And Omnipotence

    933 Words  | 4 Pages

    The question that is asked time and time again is whether or not god exists. It is evident that people hold different beliefs. It is evident that through some of the beliefs of J.L. Mackie that it could be argued that God does not actually exist. I find this argument to be more agreeable. In Mackie’s Evil and Omnipotence, he argues many points to support why it should be believed that god does not exist.

    Read More

  • Salvation In Daniel O Malley's Bridge

    819 Words  | 4 Pages

    Christians often view salvation as a heavenly resting place; in reality, however, salvation is a lifelong journey that can bridge the gap between Heaven and Earth. This spiritual bridge can be crossed through faith coupled with good works. “Bridge”, a short story by Daniel O’Malley, features a young boy who struggles to comprehend salvation as well as find his own. This motif of salvation is achieved through the use of biblical allusions which also help support the fact that the bridge is a physical representation for the motif of the path to salvation which the narrator fails to cross. O’Malley starts his story with two biblical allusions, “...but also about the flood and locusts and frogs and other plagues that had happened before and could happen again…(192).

    Read More

  • God's Role In The Black Death

    777 Words  | 4 Pages

    Gods’ Hand in Devastation In the sixteenth century, a highly infectious disease known as the Black Plague, began to spread across the shores of Europe. The term the Black Plague was quickly recognized and feared by all Europeans. In just a short amount of time the disease had spread throughout the entire continent of Europe, killing roughly fifty percent of Europeans. Those who survived the disease were left wondering “why did this happen?”.

    Read More

  • Boethius Boethius Free Will

    1532 Words  | 7 Pages

    In Christian tradition, the existence of God is central to the religion and the practices and beliefs associated with it. In this tradition, God can be conceived of as an all powerful, immortal and transcendent being who governs and creates the world as it is known. During the Medieval Era Christianity dominated Europe, leading to an extensive amount of philosophical and scholarly works related to God and how to properly conceive of him. As a result, many philosophical topics and theories were brought under examination in an attempt to combine them with Christian ideologies and conceptions of God and the world. One of the many topics brought under consideration was free will.

    Read More

More about Hart The Doors Of The Sea Summary

Open Document