Toward a Theology of Tension

Dru Johnson’s account of Hebraic philosophy seems well-suited for the task of reconciling the Christian account of God with the reality of suffering. I outline two ways in which this is the case: one retrospective, one proactive. Looking back, if biblical philosophy is mysterionist, creationist, transdemographic, and ritualist, then we might understand the failure of a certain kind of theodicy in light of its failure to meet one or more of these criteria. Looking forward, we ought to keep these features in mind. I conclude by suggesting that Johnson’s account of truth is, in fact, best understood as a correspondence account.