Contemporary Christianity is afflicted with two problems First our spiritual life is often bland and lukewarm Distracted and fragmented by our lives and malnourished on conventional piety we feel out of touch with the God described in the Bible as a consuming fire Second we don t know how to make sense of suffering especially the pain of spiritual darkness and aridity The answer to both of these problems is passion In God in the Dark Susan Pitchford explores the two faces of passion desire the mutual attraction between the soul and God and suffering especially our confusion and grief when we find ourselves in dark places We often misinterpret times of darkness assuming we ve fabled and God has abandoned us Pitchford suggests that darkness is not a place of abandonment but a place of intimacy and a special call to a deeper relationship with the God who desires us Once we understand this we will not have to fear the dark and when the night closes in around us we can experience it as an embrace