When Bad Things Happen to Good People
First edition | |
| Author | Harold Kushner |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Subject | Theism God Religion |
| Genre | Non-fiction |
| Publisher | Schocken Books |
Publication date | 1981 |
| Publication place | United States |
| Pages | 176 pp |
| ISBN | 1-4000-3472-8 |
| OCLC | 56349149 |
| Followed by | To Life: A Celebration of Jewish Being and Thinking |
When Bad Things Happen to Good People (ISBN 1-4000-3472-8) is a 1981 book by Harold Kushner, a Conservative rabbi. Kushner addresses in the book one of the principal problems of theodicy, the conundrum of why, if the universe was created and is governed by a God who is of a good and loving nature, there is nonetheless so much suffering and pain in it—essentially, the evidential problem of evil. The book argues for theistic finitism. Kushner proposes a finite God solution to the problem of evil. God is benevolent but not all-powerful to prevent evil.
Rabbi Kushner's book was a New York Times bestseller for many months in the non-fiction category. It has been translated into at least a dozen languages.