CS Lewis and The Problem of Pain

Critics of Christianity have had their field days going off on how a loving Deity could create a world where such things as pain and suffering exist. " The rain falls on the just and the unjust alike," Jesus pointed out, but what of the people who suffer from pain for no good reason such as genetic illness or being in the pathway of an evil person who wanted to rob or hurt someone?

There is also the question of hell. (Or Hell, don't know if I should capitalize the first letter of that place or not.) Some leaders in the church don't accept the idea that there is a place like hell. Given the popular conceptions of "everlasting fire" and what Dante's first volume of "The Divine Comedy " did for fleshing out the images he associated with the Underworld, and the graphic torments his enemies suffered, I can hardly blame any cleric for not playing that up at the Sunday Morning sermon.

Other Christians fully embrace the concept of Hell, but feel the place will be reserved for folks whose political and social mores do not match their own. Some are so certain about it they put bumper stickers on their vehicles saying "Eternal Life: Smoking or Non-Smoking" or "Those Who Live Like There's No Hell Better Be Right". That seems too smug to me--are such people casually condemning others to the "outer darkness" just because they are riding their car's bumper? The smuggest bumper sticker I've seen is the one that says "In Case of The Rapture, This Vehicle Will Be Unoccupied". Hmmm. Are these people talking to the Angels or do they think their presumed high status within a particular church congregation will give them a "All-Access" ticket if the world comes to an end.

To me, it's one thing to have faith, "the substance of the thing hoped for, the evidence of things not seen" (Hebrews 11:1). It's quite another to figure you got a pass, or , even if you are somehow certain of it, that you should brag about it. Christianity has its many critics and some of them are so because we forget that pride of place is something Jesus refused to give even to his own disciples, as the special request of the brothers James and John to Jesus illustrates (Mark 10:35-40).

One of the best and most direct discussions of why injustice and pain exists in the world came from the great lay Christian apologist, C.S. Lews, in the book "The Problem of Pain" (1940). It is only one of many books about Faith that Professor Lewis wrote about, and it maybe the most challenging It is an unflinching look at these criticisms I mentioned above and I will try to give some distillation of his arguments in my next entry.

In the meantime, I will include a link what I think is a good overview of the book. I recently have reen reading "The Problem of Pain" and my own interpetations will be briefer, and strictly based on my own limited understanding. So, if you're interested, you might as well start with a "pro" on an overview of Professor Lewis and his thoughts.

http://www.catholiceducation.org/articles/apologetics/ap0032.html