Reconciling Faith and Evil

Rabbi Harold Kushner's classic book When Bad Things Happen to Good People attempts to reconcile a belief in God with evidence of evil in the world, based on some of the author's own experiences.

That's Good! That's Bad! by Margery Cuyler (Henry Holt, 1993) is a fun picture book for younger children that humorously presents a series of alternating good and bad events. Riddle and Mystery youth might like to read it with younger children in the religious education program, or with a younger sibling.

The archetypal, deist "Why do bad things happen?" story is the biblical story of Job, which appears both in Hebrew scripture (Book of Job) and the Koran and forms the basis for Archibald MacLeish's 1959 play J.B. The protagonist responds to a series of afflictions with an ever-stronger belief in God and faith in God's omniscience and power.