The Doors of the Sea
The Doors of the Sea: Where Was God in the Tsunami? is a short book from 2005 about theodicy and the problem of evil by David Bentley Hart, an Orthodox Christian philosopher and religious studies scholar. This book was published after the 2004 tsunami in the Indian Ocean when Hart wrote a column in The Wall Street Journal that attracted wide attention. Bill Eerdmans, of Eerdmans Publishing, contacted Hart and asked him to expand the column into a book which Hart did. The Doors of the Sea: Where Was God in the Tsunami? has been described by writer and Episcopal priest Fleming Rutledge in Christianity Today as "the most useful short treatment of the problem of evil and suffering that we have.". Themes

Much of the book contrasts the ideas of Voltaire in Candide with those of Dostoevsky in The Brothers Karamazov. The book also references the concept of "fallen time" and of an atemporal fall (where the entire universe is considered to be incomplete and imperfect as a result of a fall that took place outside of time as we now experience it). Hart's book is not a typical Christian apology for the existence of evil in a world created by a good God. Instead, it primarily critiques any attempts to make such a apology. In The Hedgehog Review, writer and professor Eugene McCarraher calls The Doors of the Sea "a ferocious attack on theodicy in the wake of the previous year’s tsunami." As Hart says on page 58 of the book: "The principal task of theodicy is to explain why paradise is not a logical possibility." Reception

The Doors of the Sea was widely praised in leading Christian periodicals. A September 20, 2005 review by Tom D'Evelyn in The Christian Science Monitor called the book "timely, eloquent, and unfashionable" with arguments that "are missing from public debate." An October 3, 2005 review by Willis Jenkins in The Christian Century said that the book was a "moving inquiry into the question of evil, one likely to be a classic." On December 5, 2005, a review by Cindy Crosby for Christianity Today concluded:

Author and seminary professor Michael D. O'Neil concludes his November 12, 2015 review with this recap:

The Doors of the Sea was also recognized outside of Christian publications with a September 1, 2005 review by Brad S. Matthies in the Library Journal. Another review in Publishers Weekly concluded:

Hart's book was also in the top-four winners (Honorable Mention) of the 2005 Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Awards in the category of Philosophy (Adult Nonfiction). See also

References

American non-fiction books
Theodicy
Problem of evil
Books about death
Philosophy of religion literature