Which 1940 book by C.S. Lewis examines the Christian problem of suffering?

The Problem of Pain is C.S. Lewis’s 1940 book examining the Christian problem of suffering.

Published in 1940, The Problem of Pain asks how suffering can exist in a world created by a good and powerful God. Lewis discusses topics including divine goodness, human freedom, hell, animal pain, and the nature of heaven. It is a work of Christian apologetics rather than a personal memoir.

The book emerged before some of the most painful events in Lewis’s later life, including the death of his wife, Joy Davidman, in 1960. Lewis later wrote A Grief Observed about bereavement, and that work has a more personal and emotionally raw character.

Readers sometimes confuse the two books because both address suffering. The Problem of Pain presents a systematic theological discussion, while A Grief Observed records Lewis’s experience after Joy’s death.