![]() ![]() When despair is characterized by doubt in God’s goodness, as it was for Lewis, there may be little comfort in God’s presence. Ivan Karamazov’s anguish at the pointless suffering of children leads him to rebel against religion entirely. Lewis, a devout Christian if there ever was one, found no consolation in religion while grieving his beloved wife, lost to him after an agonizing battle with cancer. Even religion can find itself unable to cast light into the darkness of despair. The trouble is that hope is hard to come by when the world feels bleak. Fyodor Dostoevsky draws it for us in the character of Ivan Karamazov, who finds it impossible to love humanity in the face of its cruelty. Lewis, it is a door shut and bolted against him. Mother Teresa experiences it as her soul becoming a block of ice. It is hardly a new phenomenon, although familiarity does nothing to lessen its burdens. This we readily recognize as the voice of despair. What if this time, morning never actually comes? What if there is no gleaming city of possibility ahead for our children and grandchildren? What if humanity must remain here in the dark night of our collective soul? The world feels weighed down, mired in challenges that make it hard to see our way forward or even be confident that there is a way forward. ![]() For many of us, it’s also dark inside our minds. ![]()
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