'Where the Hell is God?'

When Australian Jesuit Richard Leonard was studying theology and looking at issues such as God and suffering and the ethics of euthanasia, it was largely an academic exercise.  When his young sister, a nurse working with the poor in India, was left paralysed in a car accident, those issues literally became matters of life and death for him. Where the Hell is God? is a 'small but explosive book' (Barnes & Noble review) resulting from his struggle to come to terms with the tragedy that befell his family.  In it he articulates his own unique insight into the mystery of suffering for those who believe in a God that is all good.

Leonard, who writes on Catholic approaches to film (Movies That Matter), has authored a brief, acute, and touching book on theodicy.  For Leonard, guided in part by his own experience with his disabled sister left, and in part by the Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius of Loyola, God does not directly will or send pain, suffering, natural disasters, or punishments.  We can approach God through these experiences and learn from them, but God is not their 'author' in the simplistic sense many espouse.

While Leonard's God may feel more remote than the personal deity many have embraced, his liberation of God from personal evil is a breakthrough.

Publisher Barnes and Noble's verdict: An explosive and progressive message in a small wrapper, Leonard's book may frustrate Catholic and non-Catholic conservatives, but it will be a tonic for liberal Christians and seekers of all faiths.


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