There is a huge difference between pastoral care and philosophical enlightenment.
The latter can be argued about from a distance as an intellectual pursuit.
Pastoral care, however, is a practical pursuit done in the real time of every day life.
This is a continuation of why we need an emotionally satisfying answer to pain and suffering.
You can understand swimming all you want.
But the situation changes when you jump in the water for the first time.
“In the presence of his own suffering or that of someone near to him he may find it difficult to maintain what he takes to be the proper attitude towards God. Faced with great personal suffering or misfortune, he may be tempted to rebel against God, to shake his fist in God’s face, or even to give up belief in God altogether. But this is a problem of a different dimension. Such a problem calls, not for philosophical enlightenment, but for pastoral care.” – Alvin Plantinga, God, Freedom, and Evil
-Ravi Zacharias and Vince Vitale, Why Suffering?
