What was the title of C.S. Lewis’s 1942 book arguing that pain can have a spiritual purpose?

The Problem of Pain was C.S. Lewis’s 1942 book arguing that pain can have a spiritual purpose.

Lewis wrote the book as a Christian exploration of suffering, evil, divine goodness, and human freedom. He addressed why a loving and powerful God might permit pain, while emphasizing that the subject involves difficult questions rather than easy emotional solutions.

The book was published during the Second World War, when suffering was an immediate reality for millions of readers. Lewis discussed pain as something that can challenge self-centeredness and direct people toward moral and spiritual transformation, though he did not claim that every individual tragedy is easily explained.

The work is often confused with A Grief Observed, which Lewis wrote much later after the death of his wife, Joy Davidman. A Grief Observed is intensely personal and autobiographical; The Problem of Pain is primarily a systematic theological argument.