Harold S. Kushner, a Jewish rabbi, asked such questions when he learned that his son would die of a rare disease. The baffling injustice of this puzzled Kushner. “I had been a good person,” he recalls. “I had tried to do what was right in the sight of God. . . . I believed that I was following God’s ways and doing His work. How could this be happening to my family?” Out of his search for answers came his popular book When Bad Things Happen to Good People.

Kushner is just one of many theologians who have tried to answer the question of why God permits evil.

Understandably, then, Kushner’s book When Bad Things Happen to Good People has popular appeal. Because its author personally knew the pain of suffering, he attempted to comfort his readers, reassuring them that God is good. However, when it came to explaining just why God permits the innocent to suffer, Kushner’s reasoning took a strange turn. “God wants the righteous to live peaceful, happy lives,” explained Kushner, “but sometimes even He can’t bring that about.”

Kushner thus proposed a God who is not wicked but weak, a God somewhat less than almighty. Curiously, though, Kushner still encouraged his readers to pray for divine help. But as to just how this supposedly limited God could be of any real assistance, Kushner is vague.