Why Does God Permit Suffering?

The question of whether and why an all-loving and all-powerful God would permit innocent people to suffer is actually one of the oldest sustained philosophical and theological conundrums we know of. The Book of Job in Hebrew Scripture captures the ancient Israelites’ attempt to grapple with the matter. Since then, thinkers have taken the existence of seemingly pointless suffering to be a reason for not believing in God, while others see such suffering as the occasion for pondering why “God’s justice” (theodicy) can appear to be so profoundly at odds with our merely human sense of justice (which suggests that innocent people should be spared from gratuitous suffering whenever possible). Despite it’s long and fulsome scholarly history, however, the question of why we suffer in this world is rarely discussed at the personal level among the faithful and their ministers. Why is this? How are people of faith (and people whose lack of faith stems precisely from the prevalence of innocent suffering in this world) to understand suffering and grave misfortune in their own lives?