The Problem of Pain

De: C. S. Lewis

Narrado por: James Simmons

Why must we suffer?

"If God is good and all-powerful, why does he allow his creatures to suffer pain?" And what of the suffering of animals, who neither deserve pain nor can be improved by it? The greatest Christian thinker of our time sets out to disentangle this knotty issue. With his signature wealth of compassion and insight, C. S. Lewis offers answers to these crucial questions and shares his hope and wisdom to help heal a world hungering for a true understanding of human nature.

©1940 C. S. Lewis Ptd. Ltd. (P)2012 HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.

Deep, real answers for the existence of pain

This book is an exploration of why a good God would allow for pain and suffering. It is not an easy book to listen to because Lewis explores the merits and fallacies of various theological ideas about the topic, which requires some foreknowledge of theological terminology and concepts. Because of this, I don't know that I would recommend this book for a new Christian. It is not that a new Christian could not benefit from it, but the vocabulary may cause a great deal of frustration.

This is one of the few books where I can say that I thought the first half was better than the second half. In the first half, the reality of pain is discussed as it relates to the nature of God. In the second half, Lewis begins exploring various beliefs on the subject of pain, and I thought he tended to wander a bit off topic at times and contradict himself. For example, in chapter nine, he discusses pain as animals experience it. One second, he says we can't really know about their pain or their immortality and the next he conjectures that the reference to the lion and the lamb lying down together in heaven was probably a common analogy of the time and shouldn't be taken literally, implying that animals probably do not possess immortal souls. I believe he overlooked quite a few verses in the Bible that imply otherwise. I deducted an "overall" star for that.

The narrator would have been a good narrator for a Shakesperean play but not for a C.S. Lewis book. Lewis had an off-the-cuff style and most narrators of his books reflect that. James Simmons' style was anything but off-the-cuff. He made it sound more like a lecture than like Lewis reading his own work. It's not that he's a poor narrator, it's just that a narrator with a more relaxed tone should have been chosen.

Overall, there are certain ideas that I will take with me from this book that I believe will help me in my moments of pain. I knew intellectually that God does not allow pain without reason, but the explanations of God's character relative to reasons he might allow for suffering will be something that will help me to emotionally understand Him. I would listen to this book again (or at least the first half) and I would recommend it to anyone who wonders why a good God allows bad things to happen to good people.

Some keen insights into suffering

As someone who has suffered greatly especially for the past 11 years since becoming paralyzed there were some keen insights from CS Lewis in this work especially as it relates to how God speaks to us in our pain. It is a megaphone to rouse a deaf world. If you are suffering or just want to learn more about the inevitable suffering we will all face this is a work I would recommend. My only caveat is there is fairly clear evidence within this book that Lewis did not believe in the inerrancy of scripture which is unfortunate and disappointing.

Brilliant Insight Again by C. S. Lewis

C.S. Lewis has an amazing gift of observing and relating God's love, and our purpose for which we are created, in a clear, practical way. His examples show how every experience fits together and makes me sit back and realize that we try to make everything so unnecessarily complicated with Good sometimes.

wisdom on the page.

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Great Pain

Fantastic read for anyone with a curious mind. The book starts off as most of C.S. Lewis essays do, he asks questions and answers them, talks about God, and then goes over the main focus of the book. My favorite chapter is the last one, where he talks about Heaven.

incredibly interesting for all walks of life.

loved it. Great for the intellectual struggling with the belief in the almighty. Very interesting insight from CS Lewis.

This book makes you think deeply!

Love CS Lewis's unique perspective and reasoning about Pain, Heaven and Hell. He argues beyond the casual and into the deep, but also from a firm foundation that many are searching desperately for but never find.

Answers the questions perfectly

One of the best works of C.S Lewis. Need to read, and re-read severally to get closer to his thinking each time.

an interesting look at God, Pain and humanity

he starts by building a foundation to address the problem of how a good God could exist in the midst of pain, and he concludes with interesting concepts of heaven that have there roots in theology. That said, I don't agree with every point he makes, specifically with regards to the nature of man before the fall, but there is plenty of insight besides this that is well worth your time.

Well rounded, wonderful read. 👏

Loved the non-biased approach to explaining this. Fantastically well done. Really enjoyed this book.