Title: Exploring Mormon Thought: Volume 4, God’s Plan to Heal Evil
Author: Blake T. Ostler
Publisher: Greg Kofford Books
Genre: Theology
Year Published: 2020
Number of Pages: 255
Binding: Hardback; Paperback
ISBN: Hardback, 978-1-58958-191-3; Paperback, 978-1-58958-648-2
Price: Hardback, 34.95; Paperback, 24.95
Reviewed by Conor Hilton for the Association for Mormon Letters
Blake Ostler’s Exploring Mormon Thought: Volume 4, God’s Plan to Heal Evil is a joy to argue with. I have not read the other books in the Exploring Mormon Thought series but am very interested in them after reading this one. Ostler’s style is an interesting mix of more academic, dense, philosophical writing (complete with arguments arranged in their logical construction) and a conversational, somewhat combative tone. This largely works for the way that it seems Ostler wants the reader to engage with the book, which is to question and challenge his assumptions—stated and unstated.
Reading God’s Plan to Heal Evil was a clarifying experience—partially for the insight that I gained into Ostler’s own Mormon resolution to the problem of evil, but also for how reading his carefully articulated position and overview of other solutions allowed me to clarify my own thoughts.
At a few points in the text, Ostler makes assertions about children that die before they turn 8 or individuals with disabilities that lead to church leaders deciding that they do not require baptism, which I don’t think are doctrinal and are problematic. Ostler asserts that these individuals were extra righteous in their pre-mortal existence and thus not in need of mortality to refine their souls. Such views are fairly commonly expressed folk doctrine (I believe that Blair Hodges has done some work on the history of these beliefs) but have the potential to dehumanize the individuals in question and use them as a mere means to the end of bettering the lives/souls of those that they interact with. This is by no means a focus of the text but is brought up on more than one occasion as evidence of Ostler’s theory or problems with other solutions.
That slight point of disagreement aside, I found Ostler’s book engaging and insightful. Not for everyone, given the mix of academic and conversational styles and the thorough, somewhat dense walkthrough of the wide range of responses to the problem of evil. But a valuable, thoughtful, and Mormon engagement with the problem of evil and what the Atonement can mean within a Mormon context. A worthy debate partner of a book.