The Problem of Pain

“[W]hen pain is to be borne, a little courage helps more than much knowledge, a little human sympathy more than much courage, and the least tincture of the love of God more than all.”

Lewis is explaining why he is addressing the mystery of theodicy, which is the presence of pain and suffering in a world that has been created by a benevolent God. Lewis’s belief that the love of God is a “tincture” that helps alleviate pain underlies his understanding of pain, which he believes to be a tool used by God to bring humans back into right relationship with God. Because God’s love eases our suffering, it reminds us that suffering would be unnecessary were we to fully align ourselves with God’s will, rather than continually assert our own will above God’s.

“[Reason] also enables men by a hundred ingenious contrivances to inflict a great deal more pain than they otherwise could have done on one another.”

Reason, Lewis argues, allows humans to anticipate pain, as well as death, but it also allows humans to inflict pain upon one another -- through crime, war, disease, and the creation of painful memories. Reason allows us to exercise our will in ways that contradict God’s wishes for us, and that, Lewis says, is the root of much of the pain we experience in life. As with all pain, the pain we inflict upon each other is soothed by the love of God.