The Hardest Problem

God, Evil and Suffering

By: Rupert Shortt

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Paperback | 17 August 2023 | Edition Number 1

At a Glance

Paperback
144 Pages

Dimensions(cm)
19.7 x 13.0 x 1.0

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$30.75

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To many, the problem of evil and suffering constitutes by far the most serious objection to mainstream religious belief. For all its starkness and salience, though, the dilemma is also widely misinterpreted. That visceral feelings often dominate discussion is understandable on one level. But this can displace the clearer-headed thinking needed to shed greater light on the subject.

In this brief but broad-ranging book, Rupert Shortt shows that belief in a divine Creator is much more coherent intellectually than many sceptics suppose. Basic misconceptions about core aspects of Judaism, Christianity and Islam can in turn spawn still greater caricatures of subjects including divine power. Having cleared the ground, Shortt goes on to discuss the nature of evil from a classical Abrahamic standpoint and how Christian resources in particular offer guidance in an area where raw emotion, conceptual thought and the deepest trials of the spirit overlap. If the dilemma has no clear solution, that need not discredit sensitive and creative ways of grappling with it.

The Hardest Problem is an accessible contemporary reflection on the perennial question of human suffering.

Industry Reviews

Rupert Shortt is clear and incisive in this new work of theodicy

'One of the most cogent writers of our day'

'Beguiling'

'Deep theological knowledge and spiritual discernment'

'Wise, informed and immensely thoughtful'

A stunning challenge to the casual atheism of our age

His arguments are powerful

The book succeeds in presenting a reasoned case for holding fast to the reality of God, as Christianity understands it, and not shirking from the troubling existence of suffering.

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