Which C.S. Lewis book examines the problem of suffering and divine goodness?

The Problem of Pain examines suffering and how it relates to divine goodness in C.S. Lewis’s thought.

Lewis published The Problem of Pain in 1940. The book is a work of Christian apologetics that addresses questions about pain, evil, human freedom, divine justice, and the purpose of suffering. Lewis approaches the subject philosophically and theologically rather than presenting it as a personal diary or memoir.

The book reflects Lewis’s belief that pain cannot be understood separately from questions about creation, moral responsibility, and humanity’s relationship with God. It became one of his most widely read apologetic works and helped establish his public reputation as a Christian thinker.

Readers sometimes confuse this book with A Grief Observed, which Lewis wrote after the death of his wife, Joy Davidman. A Grief Observed is intensely personal and was published under a pseudonym during Lewis’s lifetime. The Problem of Pain, by contrast, was written years earlier as a general treatment of the philosophical problem.