At some point, an unbeliever has probably challenged your faith on the so-called problem of evil: If God’s so good and powerful, why doesn’t he put an end to all this pain and suffering?

But the problem of evil runs both directions. Consider the problem of good. If we insist that God could not be both good and sovereign, we lose the possibility of a God whose purposes transcend our understanding. We resign ourselves to un-livable despair.

Good apologists like Gavin Ortlund can help you anticipate such challenges of faith from multiple perspectives. His latest book, where he discusses the problem of evil, is Why God Makes Sense in a World that Doesn’t: The Beauty of Christian Theism (Baker Academic). In the same apologetic book, Gavin deconstructs arguments against Christianity while also displaying the beauty of God.

Gavin joined me on Gospelbound to discuss our deepest intuitions, beauty, creation, love, and more. I was especially eager to ask him about how he employs Fyodor Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov and Elie Wiesel’s Night in his apologetics.