Slide 6 Creature, Humanity & Sin Part 1 Flashcards
Describe ‘Theodicy’
Attempts to account for the existence and extent of evil in our world, in the light of our religious beliefs
For Christianity in particular:
how the existence and extent of evil can be reconciled with our other beliefs, The goodness of creation, God’s love, God’s sovereignty
State and describe the two basic categories of evil mentioned in the lecture slides.
1) Moral Evil: Evil caused by the actions of human beings e.g. murder, neglect to help (Both the sin and its consequences)
2) Natural Evil: Evil which originates independently of human action e.g. natural disasters, illnesses
What were the 2 sub-Christian responses mentioned in the lecture slides?
1) Dualism; defends God’s goodness (or our understanding of it) at the expense of his sovereignty
2) Denial of Evil
Who was called the “fountainhead” of Christian theodicy for the Western church?
Augustine of Hippo
What is the neo-platonic view of evil?
- It is not a substance or person. It has no existence of its own. It is “no-thing”
- It is simply the privation (absence) of the good. Analogy of the shadow
- But it is not “nothing”. It has a power of its own
Describe Augustine’s conception of ‘Evil as privation’.
- This notion of “evil as privation” allowed him to affirm the goodness of both God and his creation:
- God did not create evil—because it is not a “thing” which can be created
- All that God created was good indeed (Gen 1:31)
- Evil entered our world when human creatures (endowed with free will) turned from loving God (the greatest good) to loving created things (lesser goods)
- The outcome is that goodness is not maximised, and a lack of the good arises
- This lack is “evil”: It results from the misdirection of our free will
What are the basic tenets of the Christian faith Augustine seeks to uphold in his “Free Will” Theodicy?
- Evil is a not a thing but it is a reality
- God is good: He was not directly responsible for the entry of evil into the world
- God is sovereign: He defeats evil in the end and his purposes are not frustrated
What’s the difference between Augustine’s approach and Calvin’s?
Whereas Augustine said that God merely permitted the Fall, Calvin taught that God positively willed it; everything was predestined by God from eternity
On one level, it is right to say that the Fall happened because of the wrong exercise of free will by creatures. But on a deeper level, everything was predestined by God from eternity
Who sought to depart completely from Augustine’s framework by relying on the writings of Irenaeus of Lyons?
John Hick (1922-2012)
Describe John Hick’s approach to Theodicy.
- Creation was not “perfect” at the beginning, but was at the start of a journey of growth towards maturity
- There was never a paradise in terms of a suffering-free world. Suffering (e.g. illness, natural disasters) has always been part and parcel of this world
- There was also no catastrophic “Fall”: Human creatures have committed wrongs since they came into existence, because of their immaturity
- Such conditions were necessary to fulfil God’s goal of developing fully matured human creatures
- Maturity can only occur if there is freedom of choice (Sin becomes a possibility and an inevitable outcome); we go through trials and struggles (suffering is an essential part of the process)
- The end, when it arrives, will see human beings perfected in maturity. All will eventually arrive at this destination; On looking back, every human being will agree that their growth was worth the price they had to pay
- It is a “teleological” theodicy: God will be justified in the end
Why does the anti-theodicy school think that the exercise of theodicy is to be rejected?
Trying to explain evil leads to us justifying its existence:
- This leads us to demean the experiences of the victims of evil and provide them with unhelpful “solutions”
- It dispels the anger we should feel and reduces our motivation to fight against these evils
What are beliefs of the anti-theodicy school?
We should engage in “practical” (rather than “theoretical”) theodicy:
- Reject attempts to explain or justify evil in a universal and all-encompassing way
- Focus on bringing hope and comfort to the sufferer through applying relevant Christian teachings
- Help the sufferer find personal meaning in his suffering (“victim-centred” explanations)
Describe P.T. Forsyth’s integrated approach.
- The cross is both God’s justification of the world and his justification of himself
- Strong emphasis on God’s use of suffering to push us towards growth through his acts of judgement
- But God also walks this journey together with us as the chief sufferer
