ABSTRACT
Throughout her distinguished career, Eleonore Stump has neatly combined the traditional with the innovative. So, it is not surprising that she roots a novel approach to the problem of evil in the work of Thomas Aquinas. Unlike many other philosophical writers, Stump does not treat the problem of evil simply as an intellectual problem.1 For many, believers and nonbelievers alike, the question of why there is so much suffering-and why it is distributed so incomprehensibly-is a deeply personal one. Although I believe that it is beyond human powers to give a fully satisfactory answer to this question, Stump takes an important new tack based on personal relations of love, both human and divine, and of obstacles in the way of love.
