Why Suffering

Why would a loving and powerful God allow so much pain and suffering? In Why Suffering? Ravi Zacharias and Vince Vitale carefully walk you through a variety of responses that considered together provide a clear, comprehensive, and convincing answer. Responses like: Where there is the possibility of love, there has to be the reality of freedom, and therefore the possibility of pain. Wishing God had made a different world is to wish yourself out of existence. The cross is the key to a compelling and rational explanation for trusting in God in the face of suffering. In comparison with other world religions, the Christian response is highly distinctive. The reality of evil only makes sense in light of the reality of divine goodness. Relational knowledge about God takes the argument beyond reason to the presence of God amidst suffering. God's decision to allow temporal suffering is understandable when viewed from an eternal perspective. Divine goodness shows how to conquer not in spite of, but even through suffering. Here is a book written with great respect for the complexity of the issue, recognizing that some who read it will be in the trenches of deep suffering themselves and others questioning the very existence of a loving God. Why Suffering? provides an answer to the problem of pain and suffering with emotional sensitivity and intellectual integrity.

Your journey begins. The road before you is smooth and straight. You walk for some time, recalling your experiences that call into question the deep realities of life. Up ahead, you can see the road branching in three directions. . . In Why Is There Suffering? you, reader, control the route you take through its "choose-your-own-path" chapters, asking questions and exploring different theological possibilities on the big topics of: God's existence God's nature The nature of suffering Evil Pain Final destiny Taking an intentionally light-hearted approach to a heavy topic this book presents an illustrative introduction to the problem of suffering and the most commonly offered responses to it. Along the road, you'll face multiple possibilities regarding suffering and its theological explanations, and you'll make choices about which one you find most plausible, skipping to that section of the book. Each decision you make leads to further complexities and new choices that reveal how theological beliefs lead to certain conclusions. This book does not offer final answers. Instead, it introduces the "theological" possibilities—both Christian and non-Christian—that you can explore and wrestle with to make informed decisions about your beliefs and clearly see the road you've taken to reach such beliefs. You are, of course, in control of the paths you take through these pages. You decide which explanations work. You can always go back and see what would change if you'd taken a different path. And, who knows. . .you may find that certain pathways resonate with your experiences in ways you didn't expect.

Sometimes life just hurts. Out of nowhere, death, illness, unemployment, or a difficult relationship can change our lives and challenge everything we thought we knew—leaving us feeling unable to cope. But, in the midst if all this pain and confusion, we are not alone. Weaving together his personal story, pastoral ministry experience, and biblical insights, best-selling author Paul David Tripp helps us trust God in the midst of suffering. He identifies traps to avoid in our suffering and points us instead to comforts to embrace. This raw yet hope-filled book will help you cling to God's promises when trials come and move forward with the hope of the gospel.

This edition originally published by Berghahn Books. Schopenhauer's treatise on ethics is presented here in E. F. J. Payne’s definitive translation, based on the Hubscher edition (Wiesbaden, 1946-1950). This edition includes an Introduction by David Cartwright, a translator’s preface, biographical note, selected bibliography, and an index. For convenient reference to passages in Kant's work discussed by Schopenhauer, Academy edition numbers have been added.

Gold Medallion Book Award Winner. Over a million copies sold. An inspirational classic for more than thirty years,?Where Is God When It Hurts??honestly explores pain—from physical wounds to emotional and spiritual pain—and sheds new light on God's presence in our suffering. "How can a loving God allow this to happen? God is either all-loving or all-powerful, but he can't be both." You've heard that question, and perhaps you've even asked it yourself. When a loved one dies, we receive a terminal diagnosis, or natural disasters strike, people often wonder whether God is the?cause?of suffering and why he doesn't immediately take away the pain or fix the situation. As a result, we become angry at the once-beloved God who betrayed us. Bestselling author Philip Yancey uses examples from the Bible and from his own experiences to show us how we can learn to accept—without blame, anger, or fear—what we don't understand. Along the way, he answers questions such as: Why is there such a thing as pain? Is pain a message from God? How should we respond to suffering? How can we learn to cope with pain? Where Is God When It Hurts??speaks to everyone who thinks that suffering doesn't make sense. With compassion and clarity, Yancey brings us one step closer to finding an answer when our pain, or the pain of those we love, is real and we are left wondering,?where is God when it hurts? "One of the most helpful treatments of the problem of evil that I've ever read. If I were looking around for something to give to individuals who are going through travail or difficulty, this is the book I'd recommend." —Dr. Vernon Grounds, former Chancellor of Denver Seminar

Suffering and evil affect us all, both at a general level, as we look at a world filled with injustice, natural disasters and poverty, and at a personal level, as we experience grief, pain and unfairness. And how we think about and process the reality of pain is at the heart of why many people reject God. Dr. Amy Orr-Ewing is no stranger to pain and gives a heartfelt yet academically rigorous examination of how different belief systems deal with the problem of pain. She explains the unique answer that is found in Christ and how he can give us hope in the reality of suffering. This empathetic, easy-to-read and powerful evangelistic book is good for both unbelievers and believers alike. It will help those hoping to answer one of life’s biggest questions as well as those who are either suffering personally or comforting others.

In this book, Sadhguru opens up a whole new perspective on “Why suffering?,” a question which has concerned humanity from the beginning of time. In the quest to tackle this problem, man has developed many theories, concepts and dogmata, but still, suffering is omnipresent in this world. Abrogating the erroneous belief that it is inevitable, Sadhguru delivers insights on the very origin of suffering and discloses ways beyond.

Peter Kreeft observes that our world is full of billions of normal lives which have touched by apparently pointless and random suffering. He then records the results of his own wrestling match with God as he struggles to make sense out of this pain.