Walking with God through Pain and Suffering

This is an extraordinary book. The depth of the philosophical analysis and theology is both welcome and surprising. This book was written, after all, by a man deeply engaged in pastoral ministry and leadership of a network of churches. The humility one senses while enjoying his wisdom suggests this was a man who lived what he taught. On the spectrum of books that engage the heart or the mind, this book leans toward the intellect. But it is never cold or dry. Repeatedly, I stopped to marvel at how much good was packed into a single page, and how much good it did me to read it. It really is that good. I read this book twice. Once while navigating my own painful trials; I found it helpful. I read it again after time and distance made me ready for reflection. In this second reading I found it extraordinary and healing.

***** From such a gloomy and difficult topic as pain and suffering comes a beautiful, even glorious book. This book is not mainly for theologians and seminarians (although they will appreciate it too) but for laypeople and average Christian people--people like me. I am an ordinary Christian who has never really understood or made full sense of the role that pain and suffering was intended to make in my life. This book goes beyond this topic and for me gave meaning to my entire Christian experience in a way that no other book ever has. I found my reading experience to not be grim and boring (as I expected with such a topic) but intriguing and eventually fascinating because everything I have been taught as a Christian came together and began to make sense. I initially purchased it because I am going through an intensely painful illness and needed some encouragement. This book provided it. It is not light reading, but it is important and meaningful reading; thus I would not recommend it for someone who is grieving so deeply that they cannot focus enough to handle a deep and intense book. But I would recommend it for those who love them. So much of what the Bible says about suffering is against our Western culture's admonitions and we don't even realize it. As Christians, we have even adopted a lot of these cultural beliefs. This book will pull you back into a Biblical worldview and remind you of what you know to be true. The book is divided into three parts. The first part of the book gives a background on pain and suffering, a general history of how different cultures--including our culture--views suffering. There is some philosophy in this section, and I found it a tad hard to get through. Persist, reader, as it is worth it! The first part addresses different theodicies (explanations for the problem of evil and suffering) in a systematic and logical way. The second part of the book discusses what the Bible says about suffering and how it teaches us to address it. I found this part very rich--I kept wanting to stop and ponder what I was reading. The last part deals with practical information and Biblical ways of coping with evil, suffering, and pain. It discusses how to walk with God through suffering and how to know His presence when things are hard. I purchased this book for my Kindle so that I could read it soon after it came out. I ended up buying two hardback copies--one for myself and one as a gift for someone who has turned away from God because of suffering. My friend is still a Christian but has lost the intimacy with God he used to experience; this book will provide the healing he needs, of this I am certain. I recommend this book for every Christian to read NOW in order to be prepared for suffering and remain faithful. I also recommend it for Christian readers who have loved ones dealing with painful circumstances. I recommend it for non-believers who want to understand why Christians have hope and comfort. To quote from the book: "Nothing is more important than to learn how to maintain a life of purpose in the midst of painful adversity." So true. Nothing is more important! I recommend this book for its life-changing perspective on faith. The author defines an orthodox, Biblical view of pain, suffering, and hard times; I found sincere relief to finally, finally understand. Highest recommendation possible. *****

This is a fantastic book. I do not read many devotional or non-fiction books because of the repetitive nature of so many books of this kind. I typically make my way through 1/4-1/3 of a topical book before finding myself bored and disinterested, and I often feel like I've gotten the message long before the point has been made (and wondering if the writer could have finished his or her point much earlier but for publishing purposes had to re-write repetitive content in order to fill out the pages of a full-length book). I'm not through this book, but each page keeps me riveted so far. It is divided into three distinct sections and purposes, all very deliberate and focused in their own right, so I imagine this is not going to be the same kind of experience for me. He is very scientific in his approach in the first part, Mr. Keller, so it does not feel like he is hammering a purpose but, rather, very clearly feels like a presentation of rationally researched substantiations for his viewpoints. He gives an incredible overview on cultural and historical and theological and scientific resources from so many perspectives that it feels exhaustive (in a fulfilling way) and has thus far highly impressed me. I do not want someone "glomming" onto an idea and topic and focusing his mass amount of writing on justifying his point. He is, instead, giving an in-depth discovery of what it means and has meant historically and culturally and religiously to suffer and the ways in which humanity has approached and both failed and succeeded in its suffering. It is pretty incredible and thought provoking. I do not find myself often impressed in these kind of teachings, but this one has pretty completely engrossed my focus and attention. We will have to see what kind of reactions the second and third parts bring from me. I feel excited and eagerly anticipatory of the discovery of these things.

I listened on Audible, although I also bought the paper copy since this was required reading for a seminary course. I will be re-reading this for deeper processing later, and have already passed the physical copy on to a friend in the meantime. This ought to be a required book for all in pastoral ministry.

I have read several Keller books and there are a few that stand out as extremely well organized and thought out, as well as very nicely written. I would have to say that this is one of them. Suffering has always been a part of human experience and societies and cultures throughout history have attempted to come to terms with it, to find meaning for and in suffering or to simply reject it as something that must be fought and resisted tooth and nail. One of the interesting contributions of this book is that Keller summarizes nicely different historical and societal takes on suffering. One of the unexpected conclusions is that perhaps our secular, 21st century western world is ill equipped to deal with this issue. Drawing on both secular (Luc Ferry), Christian (Charles Taylor) or otherwise religious writers, Keller draws out nicely several different underlying premises that current thought on suffering rest on. In fact, there is much to learn not only on suffering, but on the general world view regarding the meaning of life in the West in present times. Keller also does a masterful job in presenting a Christian perspective on suffering. This is a crucial part of Keller's work because there is a strong tendency in Christian circles to view suffering in different ways that, Keller argues, are in and of themselves not Christian, but simply a transformation of other perspectives, that eventually undermine hope. By relying very nicely on places in Scripture where there are examples of suffering, including a central accent on the meaning of Christ's profound experience of suffering, Keller states some important truths: Christians are most able to feel the pain of suffering, most equipped to understand that suffering was not part of the original plan, most able to enter into suffering. But, also, they have the greatest hope, and cannot be destroyed by suffering. It is not and can never be what defines them, whether they are victims, or responsible for their situation. The Christian hope has trumped and will ultimately trump, all consequences of suffering. There is much Lewis, much Tolkien, old writers, new writers, the New York Times, the Atlantic Monthly, pastors and philosophers, scientists and journalists. All kinds of people are cited and given thought to, testimony to Keller's uncanny ability to speak to people's experience and cultural context. I have already started giving this book away to friends. I am impressed by Keller's writing in a couple of ways: He is able to describe profound Christian truths in extremely pertinent ways, speaking clearly to the ambiant culture. I have met and read few that do this well. Second, there is definitely the feeling that Keller treats his readers as intelligent, thoughtful individuals, who have also given reflexion to the issues he raises. Finally, you get the impression that Keller's long experience as a thoughtful pastor comes through in his work. I cannot recommend this book enough, not only for those who want to understanding suffering, but also for those who want to get a clearer picture of hope and how it might be becoming a rare commodity.

A little repetitive, one or two of the testimonies are questionable, some doctrinal assumptions need to be clarified, but in general a helpful book worth reading.

Writing this review after a month of the purchase, packaging was very good and the condition of the book is good too. May God be with you as you read this in your pain and suffering.

Thank you Timothy Keller for an outstanding book that has put a different perspective on my life. “ If you love anything more than God, you are always going to be in anxiety about it.”.

Ein wunderbar tiefes Buch, philosophisch und sehr ehrlich,.. zutiefst christlich, aber nicht *fromm". Tiefe Denker finden ehrliche Antworten auf tiefste Fragen... leidende Christen Trost und Ermutigung. Gott ist viel mehr... ER hat uns erschaffen, den Intellekt gegeben, sollte Er nicht auf unsere Fragen echte Antworten geben? Das Leiden ist vorab für Christen ein Problem, denn sie glauben an den guten allmächtigen Gott...! Sehr zu empfehlen, lernt denken, gibt aber auch tiefste Ermutigung und Trost!