Walking with God through Pain and Suffering by Timothy Keller
Week 6: Chapter 5 — The Challenge to God's Existence
Read Chapter 5 of Walking with God through Pain and Suffering.
Previewing Week 6 of Walking with God through Pain and Suffering
Read 3 of 7 discussion questions below. Unlock the complete 14-week guide when you’re ready.
This is the book's most philosophically dense chapter — Keller takes on the problem of evil as an argument against the existence of God. Read it slowly and don't be afraid to sit with questions you can't fully resolve.
Discussion Questions
7 questions1.Keller distinguishes between the "logical" problem of evil (the claim that God's existence and suffering's existence are logically incompatible) and the "evidential" problem of evil (the claim that the amount and type of suffering in the world makes God's existence highly unlikely). What is the difference, and why does it matter?
2.Keller engages the philosopher Alvin Plantinga's "free will defense" — the argument that God could not create beings capable of love without also creating beings capable of choosing evil and causing suffering. Do you find this argument convincing? What are its limits?
3.Keller argues that if God exists and has good reasons for allowing suffering that we cannot fully see or understand — reasons that are proportionate to the suffering — then the existence of suffering does not disprove God. But he also argues that our inability to think of good reasons is not the same as there being no good reasons. How do you respond to this move?