In 1940, C.S. Lewis penned The Problem of Pain, addressing the intellectual issues surrounding evil.  A little more than 20 years later, Lewis wrote A Grief Observed, journaling his experience of pain and suffering after the death of his wife, Joy.  In the first half of the latter book, Lewis seems to indicate that his intellectual reasons offered no help with his existential struggles:

"Not that I am (I think) in much danger of ceasing to believe in God.  The real danger is of coming to believe such dreadful things about Him.  The conclusion I dread is not 'So there's no God after all,' but 'So this is what God's really like...it's easy enough to say that God seems absent at our greatest need because He is absent--non-existent...she was in God's hands all the time, and I have seen what they did to her here.  Do they suddenly become gentler to us the moment we are out of the body?  And if so, why?  If God's goodness is inconsistent with his hurting us, then either God is not good or there is no God: for in the only life we know He hurts us beyond our worst fears and beyond all we can imagine.  If it is consistent with hurting us, then He may hurt us after death as unendurably as before it."

Some have cited Lewis' experience as evidence that our intellectual reasons are unhelpful and therefore, not needed in the existential struggle of pain, suffering, and evil.  I have three responses. 

First, it does not follow that because Lewis' intellectual reasons did not help him in his struggles with pain and evil they are therefore, of no use to anyone in times of suffering.  We simply cannot develop a normative claim from Lewis' experience, that would apply to everyone else.  Secondly, there is anecdotal evidence from other individuals that intellectual reasons do in fact offer help in times of pain.  Thirdly, by the end of A Grief Observed, we can argue that Lewis actually begins drawing upon his intellectual resources once again to aid him in his personal struggles. 

So, it is important for Christians to think carefully about the problem of evil, which we'll try to do over the next several blog posts.