When one reads Norman L. Geisler’s book If God, Why Evil? one is reading a faith informed philosophical treatise on the subject. Now for some that sentence alone is enough to drive people away but on the contrary, the book is refreshingly free of the deep sentimentality and hyper-emotionalism we often find in “theology” these days. If anything the book is a reaction against the invasion of emotionalism into theology.

The text aims to be a “short, readable and comprehensive book on the topic” of why is there evil if God exists. As much as it is this it is also somewhat of a response to the propositions of the wildly popular book The Shack.

The book is broken into 10 chapters spread across 115 pages making it incredibly accessible, even to people who are not too fond of reading.

While I would recommend the text to anyone wanting a basic foundation on the subject it falls down in the language it uses. The examples and the way the subject matter is approached is rooted solidly in a modernist worldview. It reads a little like the presentation notes of a university lecturer (which Geisler has been for more than 50 years). The reason this is a problem is that it does not speak the language of post-modern Christianity and the world which means the book becomes most valuable to those who likely already agree with its premises while those who don’t will struggle with the lack of narrative and story.

It is almost as if Geisler needs a Rob Bell or a Mark Driscoll to take the content, distill it, and regurgitate it in a post-modern way.

At any rate the book is first class scholarship that I would recommend with the caveat that you will have to put on your modernist glasses to best understand it.