reviews
Why Do I Personally Experience Evil and Suffering?
Gabriel NE Fluhrer
■ Christian Focus, 2025, £8.59, 200 pp
■ ISBN: 9781527112995
■ Reviewed by David Smithard, a Consultant in Geriatric Medicine at Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust, a Visiting Professor at the University of Greenwich and the Triple Helix Editor
Why is there suffering and evil in the world? It’s a question that Christians challenge God on, and one non-Christians raise as an objection to the Christian faith. It is always a difficult question to answer. The stock answer is that God has an ultimate plan and that we do not always understand the reasoning, and will not until Christ comes again and all suffering is abolished. This will not ‘cut it’ with the non-believer and leaves some believers struggling.
That, in a nutshell, is the message of this book. Fluhrer has provided ample theological arguments to explain to the believer why suffering and evil exist and that God never meant it to be so. When God created the world and humankind, everything was in harmony until the first act of disobedience resulted in the separation of humans from God, nature, each other, and themselves. God, through the suffering of his Son on the cross, has offered us reconciliation and eternal life and eventually residence with him in the new Jerusalem.
If you are looking for a book to help you answer the questions posed by non-believers, this is not the book. But if you are looking for a book to answer your personal questions, this is a well-written one that should do so succinctly.
When I Consider Your Heavens
How science and philosophy lead us to God
Antony Latham
■ Kharis Publishing, 2025, £11.99, 166 pp
■ ISBN: 9781637463703
■ Review by Trevor Stammers, Retired GP and academic
‘Far from being a hindrance to faith, science and philosophy lead us to a very reasoned belief,’ claims the introduction to this concise primer, which covers a very wide remit within its less than 170 pages.
The first two chapters present the main cosmological arguments for belief in God. The fact that the universe had a beginning was only established in the last century, and Latham ably demonstrates how the evidence for the ‘Big Bang’ supports rather than undermines the Genesis account of creation. The fine-tuning of the universe, as shown in the formation of matter, the expansion rate of the universe, the gravitational and electromagnetic constants, the resonance energy of carbon, and several other factors, accumulates to indicate that the universe is unlikely to have arisen by chance.
The origin and development of life on earth takes up five chapters, which explain that DNA has never been synthesised in a laboratory, and this points to the dilemma of how DNA could have made itself; that DNA contains a language is also a pointer to a creator. Latham, quoting the atheist philosopher Thomas Nagel, who said that the more we learn about the genetic code, the more unbelievable the standard historical account becomes (p48). In his discussion of evolution, Latham presents gaps in the evidence for macroevolution and devotes an entire chapter to irreducible complexity. There is also an interesting chapter on Darwin the man, which suggests how his conflicted character influenced his evolutionary views.
Two chapters then discuss issues of consciousness and free will, topics on which the author has written at least one other complete book. The moral argument for God, and that fact that we find it difficult to escape the conviction that some things, like cheating in exams, stealing and murdering, are wrong (p121) is taken up in the next chapter, along with a very brief section on the problem of evil.
The next chapter, contending for the objectivity of beauty, is perhaps the most surprising and contestable element in the book, though there is no doubt that the sense of wonder that creation or art induces can be a pointer to something beyond the material.
Two chapters on miracles, one specifically about the evidence for the resurrection of Jesus, precede a brief concluding appendix on the age of the earth, for which science ‘now overwhelmingly indicates a great age’ (p165).
The author, himself a CMF member, provides a highly readable text that deserves wide circulation.
Learning to Lament
Our heavenly Father’s embrace when we grieve
Paul Mallard
■ Union Publishing, 2023, £9.99, 188 pp
■ ISBN: 9781739342661
■ Reviewed by Patricia Wilkinson, retired GP and member of the Triple Helix Editorial Committee
There is a tendency to reply to the question ‘How are you?’ with the answer ‘Fine’, even when we are not and are falling apart. The author looks at how we can rediscover ‘Lament’; how we can be honest with others and with God. He looks at various people in the Bible, including Jesus, and where they found themselves in tough times. He also takes a detailed look at some of the Psalms of Lament.
Mallard’s family experienced medical issues that he uses as examples in the book. However, from a medical perspective, these feel incomplete. He encourages us to be authentic with God about how we really feel, and yes, it is OK to be angry with him and wonder if there will be an end to what is happening. Sometimes all we have to hold onto are faith, hope, and trust when it seems that even God has disappeared.
Unfortunately, I found the questions at the end of each chapter read more like those you would find in an exam than tools to encourage reflection and discussion.
However, this book provides some food for thought and some suggestions about what we can do to learn to lament.
Priceless People
Loving Older People & People Living with Dementia
Ben R Boland
■ Christian Focus, 2025, £8.99 104pp
■ ISBN 9781527112681
■ Reviewed by David Smithard, a Consultant in Geriatric Medicine at Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust, a Visiting Professor at the University of Greenwich and the Triple Helix Editor
Populations across the world are getting older, and in parallel, the number of people with dementia is increasing. Presently, in the UK, 982,000 people are living with dementia, and this is projected to hit 1.4 million by 2040. Dementia is the greatest cause of death for women, causing 16.5 per cent of deaths in 2018.
Many people living in institutionalised settings will have dementia either as their main diagnosis or as one of their comorbidities. Ben Boland, the author of this book, has served as an older person’s chaplain in Australia for over 15 years.
Boland’s book is only 104 pages long, plus an appendix on how to create a sensory garden. It is a relatively easy read once you get into it. Boland reminds the reader that people with dementia are still children of God and made in his image. Those with dementia may well remember hymns from their life and the liturgy, and can still play an active part in a service. Similarly, his advice is that as dementia progresses, the approach of support and witness may need to change. Just because someone has severe dementia, it does not mean that the person cannot benefit from Christian contact and it is still possible for a person with dementia to come to Christ.
The book is targeted more at someone with little knowledge of dementia and thus provides some good advice across the 14 chapters. Those with some knowledge and experience of working with people with dementia may find it a little patronising. Where he strays into medical complications, such as the use of oxygen and dysphagia, the treatment is superficial and would have been better omitted. The section on dysphagia is a little concerning and offers advice which is not strictly accurate.
The sections on ministry support for those with dementia is a useful introduction but will leave some frustrated, though Boland does recommend John Swinton’s book, Dementia: Living in the memories of God (SCM Press, 2012), for a more detailed discussion of the theology and holistic care of the person with dementia.
