The ubiquitous presence of pain and suffering—unwanted, apparently undeserved, and not amenable to explanation or remedy—poses an enormous obstacle to unfailing trust in the infinite goodness of God. How does one dare to propose the way of trust in the face of raw, undifferentiated heartache, cosmic disorder, and the terror of history? Any Christian writer who ignores these grim realities or dismisses them as inconsequential is either naïve, dishonest, or disconnected from the trust-busting anguish of many struggling seekers and believers.
