To explore various religious explanations of the tragedies inflicted by nature, the author interviewed 43 prominent religious leaders across the religious spectrum: rabbis, priests, imams, monks, storefront ministers, itinerant holy people, professors, and chaplains; Jews, Roman Catholics, mainline Protestants, evangelical Christians; and others.

Some claim that nature is ultimately destructive because of Original Sin, some assert that the victims of natural disasters are sinners who deserve to die, and some explain that natural disasters are the result of individual and collective karma. Still others profess that God causes suffering in order to test and purify the victims. The author, an award-winning religion journalist, has extensive experience in this type of analytical journalism, and the result is a work that probes and challenges real people's beliefs about a subject that, unfortunately, touches everyone's life.