The reason that theology is often only there for emergencies is the same fundamental reason that philosophy is only worried about in times of both suffering and hedonism.
It has nothing to do with a person’s relative level of pleasure or pain. It’s about meaning and purpose – not comfort.
Understand: Purposelessness is found in both extreme pain and pleasure.
Everyone has noticed how hard it is to turn our thoughts to God when everything is going well with us. We ‘have all we want’ is a terrible saying when ‘all’ does not include God. We find God an interruption. As St Augustine says somewhere, ‘God wants to give us something, but cannot, because our hands are full—there’s nowhere for Him to put it.’ Or as a friend of mine said, ‘We regard God as an airman regards his parachute; its there for emergencies but he hopes he’ll never have to use it.’
-C.S. Lewis, The Problem Of Pain (Amazon)
