Why a Loving God Allows Suffering

It’s an age-old question: What kind of loving God allows suffering?

It’s even one of the questions Christians are most frequently asked is: “Why would an all-loving God allow suffering?” Who is God, anyway? Is he benevolent and loving, as Christians claim, or is he angry and retributive? Fr. Robert Spitzer, S.J., provides a comprehensive response to these questions and many more, explaining the contemporary evidence for God, the soul and the resurrection in his latest book, THE LIGHT SHINES ON IN THE DARKNESS: Transforming Suffering Through Faith.

Spitzer’s book is the definitive, and most theologically comprehensive, Catholic reference book on suffering. He discusses how God uses suffering to lead us to compassion for others and eternal life. Spitzer also shows us how the Holy Spirit guides us through times of suffering toward our salvation, explaining the signs and the interior movements that reveal the Spirit’s actions.

In The Light Shines on in the Darkness, Spitzer not only addresses the perplexing questions associated with suffering but teaches us how to suffer well. He points out some of the most common mistakes people make when trying to interpret God’s motives for allowing or alleviating suffering. He demonstrates why suffering – in combination with love – is one of the most powerful motivating agents for personal, cultural and societal development.

Spitzer dares to do what very few are willing to do today: articulate how evil and pain are ingredients in the providential design of a loving God.

“With heart and intellectual verve, Fr. Spitzer explores why a loving God allows – must allow – pain,” Dean Koontz, No. 1 New York Times bestselling author, says of The Light Shines on in the Darkness. “More important, he shows how suffering can teach us compassion, shape our character for the better, bring us closer to God and, in fact, can be, as counter-intuitive as it may seem, the ground out of which a greater happiness grows.”