As a Catholic, I turned to the section on Roman Catholicism first and was not disappointed to find what I personally believe --- God is mysterious and unknowable and the world is constructed by a divine plan that has rules (such as the rules of physics) that sometimes seem to negate our desire for an all-powerful and all-loving God. The Evangelical Christian responses were also what I expected, Biblically based and focused on man's sinfulness. But I was equally fascinated by the Jewish perspective, particularly the very popular Rabbi Harold Kuschner's comments about an all-loving vs. an all-powerful God.

The Hindu and Buddhist theologians spoke more of human perception of disaster than of God's actual role in allowing disaster to happen and, throughout many of the responses there was the thought that the occurence of disaster is less important than the opportunity it provides for us to respond to one another's suffering. Some of the perspectives I could not relate to and others I found very accessible and sympathetic even though they are not what I believe.

This is an admirable work that takes 2 situations we can all relate to --- the 2004 tsunami and Hurrican Katrina --- and offers perspectives that not only enlighten but help us to understand our differences if we open up our minds to the diverse ways of seeing the same thing.