This book is helpful for anyone who wants to understand, or begin understanding, why God would allow terrible things like natural disasters for instance to happen. The Christian will benefit by being able to offer better answers while it is a good resource to give non Christians asking the same questions. You won't find every question you have answered but with an open mind it should be a stepping stone on the road to discovering why believing in God is not incompatible with the broken world we live in. A helpful resource.

I found this book a thoughtful approach to the issues of natural 'disasters' although, I'd hesitate to so readily call them 'natural disasters' after reading. Man's lack of provision for the poor seems to have a major impact on who dies in disasters, especially these days when we have so much more advance knowledge about disaster preparation. Right now, 113 arrest warrents have been issued for substandard buildings in Turkey. But corruption allowed them to be built. That was man, not God.

One of the main conclusions is as follows:

The afflicted were not being targeted by an angry God; they were experiencing the consequences of living in a broken world, in which everyone is caught up one way or another.

This seems in line with Christian theology.


The second half of the book is more spiritual in that it points out that God does provide some answers: spiritual, philosophical, practical (modern medicine). I doubt many unbelievers will find them comforting because ultimately, many people die horrible deaths. For me, the book straightened some crooked paths in my thinking.

My main concern is whether or not enough people will read this. It's quite nuanced and does work to challenge many stereotypes (Jesus went about alleviating suffering vs disaster is judgment of God always). But the bigger disasters are the knee-jerk reactions of unthinking people who most need to read this before screaming abuse on TikTok.