What is the title of C.S. Lewis’s 1943 book about the problem of pain?

The Problem of Pain is C.S. Lewis’s 1943 book about suffering and the challenge it poses to belief in a good and powerful God. Lewis examines pain through Christian theology, discussing divine goodness, human freedom, sin, heaven, hell, and the limits of human understanding.

The book was written before the death of Lewis’s wife, Joy Davidman, and it is therefore distinct in tone and purpose from A Grief Observed. A Grief Observed was published after her death and records a much more personal experience of bereavement and doubt. Confusing those two works can obscure the different circumstances in which Lewis wrote them.

The Problem of Pain is an argumentative theological work rather than a novel or memoir. Its 1943 publication places it among Lewis’s wartime nonfiction books, alongside works that developed from his public Christian writing and broadcasts.