The Problem of Pain by C.S Lewis shows how Christians can understand pain and suffering in relation to a powerful and loving God. The “problem” of pain leads us finally to participate more fully in the death and resurrection of Christ.

God desires us to die daily and, in so doing, receive more fully the abundance of life in Christ.

Suffering involves not only physical pain but also our inability to understand it. We are thus trapped in the mental anguish of “why me?” or “why did this happen?” Such questions, however, when richly engaged, can draw the reader more fully into God’s own story with all of creation. God is not the direct Source of evil and pain but nonetheless can use suffering to heal and restore us.

This is not to make light of suffering but to point out that at the heart of Christianity is One who suffers on our behalf. Just as the self-abandonment of Christ makes new life possible, so also does our daily dying bring us more fully into a joyful dance with the One who is the Source of all that is.

In this summary, you will learn:

  • that God’s power is not abstract but the concrete power of divine goodness;
  • how the fall and human pain are intertwined, and God can heal us through suffering; and
  • why heaven is even now present through our immortal longings.

Pain is only a problem when one believes in a good and moral universe.

It is not obvious to the human eye that a benevolent God made the universe or that it has a moral order. One need only look at the history of wars and crime. All civilizations eventually die out. Scientists, too, tell us that the universe as we know it will one day cease to be. How did humans ever come to imagine that a good and wise Creator stands behind all that is?

It is a mistake to imagine that modern science has simply proved our ancestors ignorant. In all times, the pain and meaningless of the universe have been apparent. Reflect on the fact that most people across time have practiced their religion in a world without modern medicine. The origin of such religion does not come from the observation of events or of nature. Religion, rather, arises from three strands, and for Christianity, there is a fourth.

The first strand is an awareness of the numinous, the experience of awe or even dread one has before the holy. For example, Jacob says upon awakening from his dream, “How dreadful is this place!” (Gen. 28:17). One cannot dismiss this numinous awe, present since the beginning of time, from the visible world. Where then does it come from? Either it is a subjective illusion, or it is an experience of the supernatural.

This leads us to the second strand of religion: morality. Like the numinous, morality also cannot be deduced from the physical world. It, too, goes beyond the facts of experience. While moralities may differ, they share a sense of approval as well as guilt. One cannot infer the moral sense from experience. Rather, we bring it to experience. Morality, like the numinous, is either illusion or revelation.

The moral and numinous experiences do not always coincide. In paganism, for example, worship of the gods and philosophical reflection were rarely connected. Non-moral religions and non-religious moralities continue to exist. The third strand of religion, then, is when the numinous guards morality and vice versa. For example, even Stoicism appeals to God to support its moral program. Perhaps the people who took this step most fully were the Jews, uniting the divine presence of the mountaintop with the love of righteousness.

The fourth strand of religion, unique to Christianity, is a historical event. Christianity is not the outcome of philosophical speculation but the response to the historical incarnation of Christ, which reveals the goodness and righteousness of ultimate reality. Rightly understood, pain only becomes a problem in light of the fullness of this revelation.

The idea that God can do anything contradicts divine omnipotence.

In common speech, we often say something is not possible unless such and such happens. For example, it is not possible for the boy to finish his homework unless he finds his book. There are other times, however, when an impossibility is absolute: The six-year-old boy cannot possibly jump six feet. He is physically unable to do so; it is an intrinsic impossibility. In reflection on divine omnipotence, we sometimes fall into the error of applying intrinsic impossibility to God. That is, while all things are indeed possible with God, it is meaningless to say “God can” in a way that includes meaningless assumptions. For example, it’s nonsensical to say that God can create free will and, at the same time, withhold it.

We ought, therefore, to exercise caution in applying “intrinsic impossibilities” to divine omnipotence. For example, the “laws of Nature” seem to operate regardless of human suffering. These seem, therefore, likely evidence for the weakness or absence of divine goodness and omnipotence.

Yet, not even an “omnipotent” God could create a society free of such an independent nature. For one, creatures can only develop a “self” in relation to another. Freedom requires choosing between things in one’s environment. The world is mediated to us externally. For Christians, this includes church tradition, Scripture, and conversation with religious friends. Society requires a world. If matter is to serve us and this world, it must have a fixed nature with constant laws. But this also allows humans in their freedom to engage in nature with love and respect or competition and hostility. The stability of nature makes possible the consequences of freedom and goodness, but also of sin.

An analogy is the game of chess. If any move were possible, then the game itself would cease to make sense. So it is with life and the natural world. Fixed laws, the natural order, and necessary consequences make possible both a common life and the exercise of free will.

This is not to discount that God does bring about miracles, but this conception of a common world indicates that such miracles will be rare…

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