Loading...
Loading...
Click here if you don’t see subscription options
JesuiticalApril 02, 2021
Photo by Jan Huber on Unsplash

Why does an all loving God allow evil and suffering in the world? The theodicy isn’t just a problem for popes and theologians—at some point in any believers life it’s a question that seizes and stops a prayer in the throat.

Yet we try to offer inadequate answers all the time: God only gives us what we can handle. This is a test. Everything happens for a reason. Push any of these responses a bit, and the unraveling begins.

Perhaps the only real answer is in asking the questions. In poetry. In prayer. Joe Hoover, S.J., America’s poetry editor, is out with a new book O Death, Where is Thy Sting?, which is a meditation on all of this and more. In this week’s show, Zac and Ashley sit down with Joe to talk about suffering—fitting for Good Friday.

Links from the show:

Joe’s book: O Death, Where Is Thy Sting?
The Great Courses Plus (Get a month of unlimited access for free!)
Subscribe to America
Join our Patreon community.

The latest from america

Pope Leo XIV has appointed Auxiliary Bishop Michael M. Pham of San Diego to head the diocese.
OSV NewsMay 22, 2025
Our country is not only in a constitutional crisis; we are in a biblical crisis.
Terence SweeneyMay 21, 2025
A Homily for the Sixth Sunday of Easter, by Father Terrance Klein
Terrance KleinMay 21, 2025
Pope Leo XIV meets with Vice President JD Vance after the formal inauguration of his pontificate at the Vatican on May 18. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
Pope Leo I helped to ensure that Catholicism would outlast the Roman Empire. His name is a reminder that our faith rises above contemporary politics and temporal authority.