But Not Through Me

Seven Steps to Facing Up to the Challenge of Evil and Suffering

Evil and suffering are the very deepest challenges in life, but many in the modern, comfortable West have found it easy to downplay the problem. Even though we have just come through the most evil and destructive century ever, commercial, technological, and intellectual developments can make the problem of evil seem dull, remote, and abstract. September 11 brutally shattered such illusions and more and more of us are again confronting such hard questions as “why bad things happen to good people.”

A Trinity Forum seminar curriculum directed by Dr. Os Guinness, But Not Through Me takes us through classic and contemporary readings and sets out seven steps to help us honestly address the challenges posed by evil and suffering—and to consider our own responsibility. The readings are selected to open conversation on the deepest questions and issues we face as human beings. 

The readings are demanding but not depressing—for those who go to the end. We begin by exploring the roots of evil and suffering—in our bodies, nature, and other humans—and listening to the questions suffering raises. We then turn to looking at the ways the modern world has transformed our experience of evil and suffering, magnifying its effects and diffusing individual responsibility. We look at the strongest explanations for evil and suffering from different times and cultures and turn to the necessary practical responses of confession, forgiveness, and resistance. After a treatment of the inherent mystery of evil, we address some of its “silver linings” and conclude by reflecting on the possibility of our individual response in our own spheres of influence.

This curriculum is available for Trinity Forum events and sponsored events only.

Edited by Os Guinness with Peter Edman