God Can't: A book review

God Can’t

How to Believe in God and Love After Tragedy, Abuse, and Other Evils

by Thomas Jay Oord

SacraSage Publishing, 2019

For the last few years, a group of people from my church have hosted a theology discussion group. It meets every summer, and we invite people with expertise in theology and philosophy to share with us on a theological/philosophical topics. Several of our members teach at one of our local Christian universities, and between them and the network of people they know, we have had a wealth of perspectives on topics ranging from Open Theism to Pacifism to Violence in the Old Testament and so on. These summer discussions have been very formative for me. One significant effect of these discussions is learning how many very different views there are of what the Bible has to say on many, many subjects. I don’t always agree with what our speakers have to say, but I have learned to listen and engage with many different ideas without feeling threatened by them.

I say this because God Can’t by Thomas Jay Oord will most definitely make some people uncomfortable. He is well aware his premise there are things that God cannot do pushes against long-held conventional beliefs about the nature of God.

I heard Tom speak last February and again last June about the topics he writes about in God Can’t. I had lots of questions for him, the most significant one being if what you say is true, how should I pray? He responds to that question and many others in this book to reach anyone who has ever been through difficult times and was not satisfied with others’ response as to why God “let” this happen or God “made” this happen.

The book is directly and thoughtfully written, born out of a desire to help those affected by the evils of this world. Tom brings a wealth of both scholarship and lived experience to his message. Several times I found myself writing down questions in the margin only to have him address those very questions later in the book. He also provides questions at the end of each chapter for reflection or group discussion. My personal recommendation is to read the book one section at a time. Wrestle with each chapter before moving on to the next. I also suggest reading it and discussing it with others in a group setting. As Tom uses his own and the experiences of others as examples, the experiences of others in a group setting can be beneficial to absorbing the concepts in God Can’t. Finally, I encourage you to look through the chapter questions before reading the chapter. Not every question provided will work as a pre-reading reflection, but a lot of them will. I think in doing so, you will be more prepared for his assertions as he makes them.

I want to leave you with one of his ideas that is resonating most with me having finished the book: God needs our cooperation to make a difference in this world. In chapter five, Tom quotes Teresa of Avila,

Christ has no body but yours,

No hands no feet on earth but yours,

Yours are the eyes with which he looks compassion on this world

Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good,

Yours are the hands with which he blesses all the world.

Yours are the hands, yours are the feet,

Yours are the eyes, you are his body.

Tom does not suggest this in a literal way. Instead, he says, “the Spirit who has no physical frame calls us to use pour physicality to express God’s love. Like a mind influencing a body without controlling it, God influences us” (p. 157). When we listen to that influence, we have an impact on the world around us. That idea calls to my spirit. God not only loves me, But He also needs me, and I can work with Him to make the world a better place.

I can’t guarantee you will agree with Tom’s vision of God’s character and how that impacts how we understand the terrible things that happen to us. I can assure you will think about your beliefs about it.

God Can’t is available for purchase now in bookstores. Currently, the ebook format is only available for Kindle. However, it will soon be available in all ebook formats.

Chatting About Books: A LUE PSA

As with most fields, reading educators have professional organizations. With my plan to focus on postsecondary reading, I have joined the National Association for Developmental Education (NADE) and the College Reading and Learning Association (CRLA). I've also joined the International Reading Association (IRA). The IRA publishes several reading journals, hosts conferences each year and publishes Reading Today six times a year with news for reading professionals.

In my most recent copy of Reading Today, there was a piece about Chatting About Books, a free podcast which reviews the best children's literature and includes discussion with parents and children, as well as reading experts. I went to ReadWriteThink.org** to check out these podcasts hosted by Emily Manning. Although the entire website is geared toward teachers and other educators, I think parents will find them a great resource for finding new books and hearing ideas about how best to engage your children in reading. The podcasts focus on grades K through 5 and are thematic. Each is approximately 15 minutes long. You can subscribe to them using an RSS feed or iTunes (Just go to the iTunes store on your computer and type in "Chatting about Books" and you can hit subscribe). There are also notes for each episode on the website.

I listened to the poetry episode and loved it. In this particular episode, the guest was Sylvia Vardell, a professor at Texas Woman's University. She has authored POETRY ALOUD HERE, POETRY PEOPLE, and CHILDREN'S LITERATURE IN ACTION. She also has her own blog, Poetry for Children.

The Chatting About Books podcasts are located in the Beyond the Classroom section of ReadWriteThink.org under podcasts. Also located on the Beyond the Classroom section of the website is Text Messages, podcasts geared toward reading recommendations for teens.

**ReadWriteThink.org is maintained by the IRA and NCTE (the National Council of Teachers of English). It is a non-profit site designed to provide access to the best research-based practices and resources in language arts.