Summary and Response to When Bad Thing Happen to Good People essays

Summary and Response to When Bad Thing Happen to Good People essays Rabbi Harold S. Kushner's work, When Bad Things Happen to Good People, was inspired by the suffering he experienced with the tragic death of his son, Aaron. He, like many people who experience tragedy and loss, especially the loss of a child, experienced a search for meaning and a crisis of faith. This is especially interesting, considering the fact that Kushner is a Rabbiand it shows how "bad things" can cause a struggle in faith in anyone. He writes that he composed the book for people, like him, "who have been hurt by life," and now struggle with God as a result. Kushner begins his book with a discussion of the universal question, "Why do the righteous suffer'" He then provides a summary of the commonly quoted "reasons," including punishment, trial (the righteous being "tested), suffering as contribution to a "grand design," as an education, Kushner then comments on the "story of Job," the archetypal Biblical tale quoted in relation to suffering, and concludes that God is not all powerful, but, instead is "all good." The third chapter deals with indiscriminate suffering, i.e. "wrong place at wrong time." And concludes that some things "just happen" for no In chapter four, Kushner comments on the fact that good people are not exempt from suffering. People don't suffer because of being "bad." Instead it is due to "natural law," which is blind. The fifth chapter deals with "evil," and the human ability to choose it. That some evil committed by people (do to their human choice), can result in sufferingthat has nothing to do with God. Kushner points out in chapter six that God can only help those who help themselves accept or handle their sufferingthat the individual can contribute to suffering by their reaction to it. Chapter seven asserts that God cannot do ev ...