ABSTRACT
Perhaps no event in earthly life can bring out the agonizing cry of "Why, 0 God?" like the dying and death of a child. The sense of helplessness that pastoral caregivers can feel when confronted with these questions can be awesome and even paralyzing. As I noted in the beginning of this book, a midcareer, highly successful congregational pastor who has never experienced the death of a child in a congregation he has served feels that he is "living on borrowed time" before he is confronted with these questions. The fear stems in part from the sense of inadequacy of any answer in the face of such an ultimate question. The fear is also a natural fear of the unknown. Most clergy who have never faced these questions from an anguished parent or teenager have never given a great deal of
thought to what they might say nor given much reflective thought to how they approach pastoral care.
