The Problem of Pain
The Problem of Painanswers the universal question, "Why would an  all-loving, all-knowing God allow people to experience pain and suffering?"  Master Christian apologist C.S. Lewis asserts that pain is a problem because our  finite, human minds selfishly believe that pain-free lives would prove that God  loves us. In truth, by asking for this, we want God to love us less, not more  than he does. "Love, in its own nature, demands the perfecting of the beloved;  that the mere 'kindness' which tolerates anything except suffering in its object  is, in that respect at the opposite pole from Love." In addressing "Divine  Omnipotence," "Human Wickedness," "Human Pain," and "Heaven," Lewis succeeds in  lifting the reader from his frame of reference by artfully capitulating these  topics into a conversational tone, which makes his assertions easy to swallow  and even easier to digest. Lewis is straightforward in aim as well as honest  about his impediments, saying, "I am not arguing that pain is not painful. Pain  hurts. I am only trying to show that the old Christian doctrine that being made  perfect through suffering is not incredible. To prove it palatable is beyond my  design." The mind is expanded, God is magnified, and the reader is reminded that  he is not the center of the universe as Lewis carefully rolls through the  dissertation that suffering is God's will in preparing the believer for heaven  and for the full weight of glory that awaits him there. While many of us naively  wish that God had designed a "less glorious and less arduous destiny" for his  children, the fortune lies in Lewis's inclination to set us straight with his  charming wit and pious mind.--Jill Heatherly