8.6 /10 1 Votes
Country United States Subject Theism
God
Religion Publication date 1981 Originally published 1981 Genre Non-fiction | 4.3/5 Barnes & Noble Language English Publisher Random House Inc Pages 176 pp OCLC 56349149 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Similar Harold Kushner books, Death books, Suffering books | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
When bad things happen to good people widescreen
When Bad Things Happen to Good People (ISBN 1-4000-3472-8) is a 1981 book by Harold Kushner, a Conservative rabbi. Kushner addresses in the book one of the principal problems of theodicy, the conundrum of why, if the universe was created and is governed by a God who is of a good and loving nature, there is nonetheless so much suffering and pain in it - essentially, the evidential problem of evil.
Contents
The book is dedicated to the memory of his young son, Aaron, who died at the age of 14 in 1977 of the incurable genetic disease progeria. Rabbi Kushner's book was a New York Times bestseller for many months in the "nonfiction" category.
Thesis
Kushner seeks to offer comfort to grieving people. His answer to the philosophical problem is that God does his best and is with people in their suffering, but is not fully able to prevent it.
Kushner’s beliefs, which seem to question God’s omnipotence, have been criticized by some conservative scholars associated with Orthodox Judaism as well as evangelical Christianity.