Making Sense Out of Suffering by Peter Kreeft, first published in 1986, explores this classic question.
The text is concise, it is organized into 10 chapters and spans 184 pages, excluding the foreword. Although it is mostly not written in the form of Socratic dialogue, six of the chapters do contain a short segment of Socratic dialogue.
Kreeft explores the question or “problem” from a broader perspective without limiting the discussion to the Christian view. He tries “to combine experience, tradition, reason, imagination, and faith”. It is only later in the text that the discussion converges to the Christian view.
Below are the contents which already give a sense of what the book is like.
1: The Problem
2: Ten Easy Answers
3: Back to the Problem
4: Seven Clues from the Philosophers
5: Seven Clues from the Artists
6: Eight Clues from the Prophets
7: The Clues Converge: Jesus, the Tears of God
8: What Difference Does It Make?
9: Back to the Problem
10: Why Modernity Can’t Understand Suffering
In the first chapter, Kreeft briefly mentions the Buddhist perspective, that suffering is due to desire (tanha), specifically “the gap between itself and satisfaction”. The way to end said suffering is to end that desire, which is the state of nirvana. This solution is overly simplistic for it is comparable to “spiritual euthanasia, killing the patient (the self, the I, the ego) to cure the disease (egotism, selfishness)”.
The point is that the author considers a variety of views and arguments throughout. Chapters 2: “Ten Easy Answers”, 4: “Seven Clues from the Philosophers”, 5:“Seven Clues from the Artists” and 6: “Eight Clues from the Prophets” are particularly interesting as these chapters are the core of the text that explores the problem.
As one can see from the chapter titles, the author goes from the general and “easy” or cheap answers to the more specific and complicated clues. For example, in chapter 2, he outlines the classic “apparent inconsistency among four propositions” regarding the problem of evil. (By the way, suffering is one definition of evil.)
I. God exists II. God is all-powerful III. God is all-good IV. Evil exists
He then goes through the 10 “easy answers” beginning with atheism (denial of God’s reality) and then proceeding to the likes of dualism (denial of God’s power) and deism (denial of God’s goodness).
Chapter 7: “The Clues Converge: Jesus, the Tears of God” is, of course, important as the discussion wraps up even if it is not necessarily the most intellectually stimulating chapter.
My only complaint is that the author does not explicitly mention the role of suffering in the economy of grace even though he does mention the fundamental point that by becoming man, God “transformed the meaning of our suffering: it is now part of his work of redemption”.
Overall, it is a short and easy read. It would be informative to those who have not ruminated on the question or problem. Those who are familiar with the subject might find it a good reinforcement anyway.
I finish this review with a quote included in the first chapter from St Teresa of Avila, also referred to as St Teresa of Jesus (b. 28 March 1515 – d. 4 October 1582). Kreeft makes a point that even saints struggle with the problem of suffering.
Even Teresa of Avila, when thrown off her carriage, slammed rudely to the ground, and deposited in a mud puddle, questioned God. He answered her, “This is how I treat all my friends.” Her tart reply was, “Then, Lord, it is not surprising that you have so few.” Even saints do not smile sweetly when God throws them into mud puddles.
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