The third book that I considered during this Easter season, after the volumes I noted earlier by Geza Vermes and N.T. Wright, was written by Gary R. Habermas.  It is entitled, The Risen Jesus and Future Hope (Rowman & Littlefield, 2003).  It probably had more impact upon me than either of the other two, and profoundly impacted the implication of Jesus’ historical resurrection for my present life.

After a detailed historical, philosophical, and theological defense of the resurrection of Jesus, Professor Habermas shares the poignant, heart-rending story of the death of his beloved wife Debbie.  Then the overall intent of the book comes to the light.  Habermas, a well-known evangelical philosopher and apologist, has spent a major part of his life researching and writing on the resurrection of Jesus.  Much of his defense of miracles and the resurrection has been published in other forms elsewhere.  But with the death of his wife, who was only forty-three years old, leaving him to care for their four young boys, the resurrection took on a deeply personal meaning.  It now became the bedrock, not only of his thought, but of his very existence. 

During this time of mourning, Habermas took immeasurable solace and a sort of companionship in the story of Job, the Old Testament epitome of suffering.  After reflecting long upon Job’s struggles with God, Habermas came to recognize that God never answered directly Job’s many questions of “Why?”  God did not provide Job with a detailed philosophical justification of evil or suffering, and never answered Job’s questions about his personal suffering.  Instead, God asked Job to answer an array of questions, including whether Job himself could answer the problems of pain and suffering.  But Job had no answers.  However, with his silence came Job’s liberation.  Job discovered a simple, yet profound truth.  Habermas writes, “Based on what he knew about God, Job realized that he could trust God even in those things that he did not know…Indeed, he could now trust the One who did know why it all happened” (p. 195; italics his). 

The principle that Job learned became the anchor of Professor Habermas’ own experience as he walked through that time of suffering.  Habermas knew well as an intellectual truth the reality of Jesus’ resurrection; now, like Job, that truth gave him the foundation of his experience as he faced the many unknown questions and issues of his and his sons’ lives without this beloved wife and mother.

Several years later he set about to write this present book in an attempt to challenge unbelievers with the rationality of Christian theism by establishing the historical veracity of the resurrection.  But he also attempts to strengthen believers’ faith by combining rational arguments and experiential studies of subjects like facing the fear of death, personal suffering, the witness of the Spirit, and the authority of Scripture for a full-orbed theology of resurrection.

I was deeply moved by Professor Habermas’ experience.  I had worked with Gary on a writing project during some of this time of grief, but I was not aware of the depth of his suffering and struggle.  In reading this account I was struck by the similarity to C.S. Lewis’ struggle at the death of his beloved wife Joy, recorded in A Grief Observed.  Like Lewis, Gary found a depth of consolation in trusting God with the unanswered questions through what he already knew of God. 

This is the profound reality of life that all of us need to learn.  With the blessings of modern medicine and technology that isolates the sick and dying away in hospitals and nursing homes, we are probably less prepared to handle suffering and death.  But Habermas has given us a theology of resurrection that is at the heart of the message of God to a dying and suffering world. 

Because the level of writing is pitched a bit toward those philosophically and theologically interested, this book will perhaps not receive a wide reading.  It is not for the faintly interested, nor for the faint of heart.  The argument is tight, yet at times a bit pedantic, because Habermas is deliberate in making sure that his readers get the message.  For those believers or unbelievers with the stamina to wade through the arguments of the first part of the book, the full impact of the necessity of a theology of resurrection will burst open like radiant sunshine in the second part of the book.  Hopefully these truths will then be communicated to a wider audience—because all of us need to rest our present lives, including suffering and death, and future hope, in the risen Jesus.