More than a few people today scoff at the notion of "religious experience." What the believer accepts as God acting in human lives, the skeptic attributes to delusion or hysteria--especially when the believer is a woman. Indeed, the possibility of self-deception in the realm of religious experience is sufficiently great that even devotees tread softly around it. At what point does mindless enthusiasm come to an end and actual, transcendent reality begin? Sidney Callahan, a psychologist, author and Christian ethicist, describes authentic religious experience as the work of "a creative God of...

In the face of suffering, is it possible to believe in God? In this heartfelt and thoughtful new book, revered Catholic columnist Sidney Callahan answers yes, offering a reflection on suffering from a Christian perspective. Taking on C.S. Lewis and other traditional writers, she introduces the reader to new insights from fields such as the psychology of human emotion and evolutionary biology. Drawing from her own harrowing experience of a mother s loss, she shows that Christians view suffering in a different way, with the expectationin the face of all evidence to the contrarythat we are...