Suffering and the Search for Meaning - by Richard Rice (Paperback)

About the Book

Suffering is a deeply personal problem. Why is this happening to me? Guiding readers through the seven most significant theodicies, Richard Rice uses theory and personal stories to help each of us form a response to suffering that is both intellectually satisfying and personally authentic.

Book Synopsis

Suffering is a philosophical problem, but it is much more. It is deeply personal. Why is this happening to me? How can I respond to friends and family in pain and loss, and to people in my care? Richard Rice guides readers through the seven most significant theodicies--approaches that have been used to make sense of suffering in light of God's justice or control. He considers the strengths and weaknesses of each option, while always guiding us toward greater understanding and compassion. Rice goes further by offering guidelines for constructing a personal framework for dealing practically with suffering, one that draws from philosophy, ethics, theology and real-world experience. Intending for each of us to find a response to our suffering that is both intellectually satisfying and personally authentic, Rice provides the resources for meeting this challenge. He weaves together the theoretical side of the theodicies with personal stories of people who have experienced great suffering. While no framework can perfectly account for the problem of pain, we are left with the overarching insight that suffering never has the final word.

Review Quotes

"Suffering and the Search for Meaning is a beautiful book. Richard Rice writes gracefully, gently, wisely and sensitively about this most troubling and persistent problem--the pain and suffering of our lives and the lives of those we love. Rice provides a careful and accessible engagement with the most enduring 'solutions' that theologians and philosophers have offered to this problem. He is always careful to give each one its best hearing but never shies away from probing the weaknesses of a particular theodicy. He draws effortlessly and poignantly from popular culture, literature and yesterday's headlines to provide lively illustrations of his ideas. To read this book is to be guided gently, and to be addressed with respect and dignity, by one of the truly gifted pastoral theologians of our day."

--Michael Lodahl, professor of theology and world religions, Point Loma Nazarene University

"Pain and suffering are integral to human life, but never easy to understand or to deal with. Richard Rice's Suffering and the Search for Meaning brings a new dimension to reflection on the meaning of suffering, one deeply imbued with the best theological and philosophical thinking, but also attuned to contemporary human experience. After a clear analysis of the advantages and drawbacks of six classic options, he argues for a practical theodicy that does not try to make final sense of suffering but that helps those in the midst of suffering to respond in a resourceful way that will enhance the meaning of life."

--Bernard McGinn, Naomi Shenstone Donnelley Professor Emeritus, Divinity School, University of Chicago

"Questions about suffering never go away, nor do our attempts to explain it and live courageously in spite of it. Among the myriad of books on the topic, Richard Rice's is distinguished by its union of theoretical and personal concerns--by the way it brings together the concrete experience of suffering and the different ways careful thinkers have tried to explain its presence in the world. Accessible and practical, as well as philosophically informed, Suffering and the Search for Meaning will be of great value to physicians and other care providers as they seek to understand and respond to the full range of their clients' needs."

--Harold G. Koenig, MD, professor of psychiatry and director of the Center for Spirituality, Theology and Health, Duke University Medical Center

About the Author

Richard Rice is professor of religion at Loma Linda University in Loma Linda, California. He is the author of several books, including God's Foreknowledge and Man's Free Will and Reason and the Contours of Faith.