31 pages • 1 hour read
C. S. LewisThe Problem of Pain
Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 1940A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Summary
Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Key Figures
Themes
Symbols & Motifs
Important Quotes
Essay Topics
Tools
BetaPreface-Chapter 3Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Preface Summary
In the Preface, Lewis informs the reader that he is writing at the suggestion of a colleague, and that this work will be an attempt to “solve the intellectual problem raised by suffering” (vi). Lewis is quick to manage the reader’s expectations, stating that he is not a theologian, but rather a “layman and an amateur” (vi). Furthermore, Lewis says, the book will not follow the usual pattern of an academic tome, footnoting sources and tracing ideas back to their origins. Having established what the reader can expect from the work, Lewis is prepared to tackle an ancient question: Why does God allow bad things to happen to good people?
Chapter 1 Summary: “Introductory”
Lewis informs the reader that he was an atheist not many years prior to writing this book, and part of his lack of belief in God was the presence of pain. Speaking of the existence and order of the Earth, Lewis writes, “It [the Earth] is so arranged that all the forms of it can live only by preying upon one another […]The creatures cause pain by being born, and live by inflicting pain, and in pain they mostly die” (1). Lewis then explains how Christianity developed, even in the face of human suffering. There are four strands that inform Christian belief: the numinous (here Lewis is referring to the work of Rudolf Otto and the mysterium tremendum et fascinans), morality, the attribution of the numinous and morality to the divine, and the life of Jesus Christ.
As for Jesus, Lewis writes, that the man was either honestly the son of God or was crazy. Having established the foundations of Christian belief, Lewis addresses the problem at hand, writing, “If, on such grounds, or on better ones, we follow the course on which humanity has been led, and become Christians, we then have the ‘problem’ of pain” (9).
Chapter 2 Summary: “Divine Omnipotence”
The problem of pain, Lewis writes, boils down to this: “If God were good, He would wish to make His creatures perfectly happy, and if God were almighty, He would be able to do what He wished” (11). We are not perfectly happy because of the presence of pain, so Lewis asks how we might reconcile the presence of a good God with suffering. The first thing we need to understand is what is meant by “omnipotence” when referring to God’s power. Yes, God has the power to do all things, Lewis asserts, but this power is subject to the laws of Nature. Lewis gives an example of being unable to see the street from his desk unless he were to move, or the building blocking his view was to disappear. Remaining where he is and seeing the street is impossible for himself and for God.
The second thing to understand is that creatures have free will, by which they may choose to act, or not act, in any particular way. Oftentimes, these choices cause pain to ourselves and others. This must be, Lewis explains, otherwise free will would not exist. Lewis writes, “But such a world would be one in which wrong actions were impossible, and in which, therefore, freedom of the will would be void...” (16). Because of free will, there must be the possibility of pain.
Chapter 3 Summary: “Divine Goodness”
In contemplating the nature of God’s goodness, we come up against the dilemma that God’s definition of good may differ from ours: “What seems to us good may therefore not be good in His eyes, and what seems to us evil may not be evil” (19). It is not the case, Lewis argues, that our idea of what is “good” differs from God’s idea of what is good, but rather that the “good” God calls us to is simply far better than what we can achieve.
Furthermore, we associate God’s “goodness” with benevolence, imagining God as a kindly grandfather figure who wants only that we are happy. This is not sufficient, Lewis argues, because humans, lacking conscience, can be happy without being good. Thus, what God wants is for us to be good, and in order to achieve that, God must try to improve us. Lewis writes, “We are, not metaphorically but in very truth, a Divine work of art, something that God is making, and therefore something with which He will not be satisfied until it has a certain character” (22).
How does God help us attain that “certain character”? By introducing pain, as a means of helping us learn. This is not God being cruel, Lewis explains, but rather God loving us as a parent loves a child, a person loves a pet, or a husband loves a wife. This means that God constantly seeks to help us improve ourselves, pushing us to be all that we were created to be. This is proof, Lewis writes, of God’s profound love for us: “When Christianity says that God loves man, it means that God loves man: not that He has some “disinterested”, because really indifferent, concern for our welfare, but that, in awful and surprising truth, we are the objects of His love. You asked for a loving God: you have one” (25).
Preface-Chapter 3 Analysis
C. S. Lewis writes in a conversational tone, as though he were telling the reader a story in person. This is a useful stylistic choice, given the weighty nature of the material he’s covering. Interspersed with Lewis’s theological arguments (many of which are footnoted to reference the work of historically influential theologians and philosophers) are bits of personal narrative; Lewis includes his conversion experience at university and his experiences with animals. In this way, Lewis establishes a close relationship between author and reader, rather than maintaining an authoritative stance over, or critical distance from, the reader.
This personable style allows Lewis to create a text that is perhaps more convincing to the reader. Because he writes as a man who is not an expert and who once held doubts about the convictions he currently holds, Lewis’s work is far more accessible to the average reader than the authoritative, brooking-no-argument voice common to so many theological works. Lewis writes for the common man, which is key to his success as an author. It should be noted, also, that Lewis refers to God as “He” or “Him,” a gender assignment for the Christian God that has fallen out of usage for several denominations, but it was common usage during Lewis’s lifetime.
Lewis, upon entering University, was an atheist, a stance he took after the death of his mother. He came to believe in God by “falling into the company of young men (none of them, by the way, Christians) who were sufficiently close to me in intellect and imagination to secure immediate intimacy, but who knew, and tried to obey, the moral law. Thus their judgement of good and evil was very different from mine” (19). The company of these young men led Lewis to begin contemplating the nature of morality and the source of our beliefs in right and wrong, which led him back to belief in God. Here, Lewis humanizes himself with his story of grief and empathizes with the reader, who is presumably seeking answers to the same questions he was. He takes a humble, but academic, approach and characterizes himself as a student of Christianity rather than an expert.
God, in Lewis’s understanding, is purely good, purely benevolent, and full of profound love for each of us—but this love is not a hands-off, detached “I just want you to be happy” sort of affection. Rather, it is a love that sees our flaws and wants to help us repair them so that we can achieve our ultimate goal, which is alignment and union with God. God’s love for us, Lewis says, is a love so powerful that it requires a submission on our part. Thus, Lewis writes, “Our highest activity must be response, not initiative. To experience the love of God in a true, and not an illusory form, is therefore to experience it as our surrender to His demand, our conformity to His desire...” (28).
Having established the foundations of Christian belief, along with his own understanding of God, Lewis is now ready to address the fundamental question of why pain is necessary.
Related Titles
By C. S. Lewis
