Irenaeus

• Irenaeus admitted that evil and suffering exist, and that God allows them to continue.
• Why does God let evil continue according to Irenaeus?

  God allows it to take place so that we can grow and develop as human beings into a mature and free relationship with God
• Argued that there has to be evil in the world so we can appreciate the good. Good is a qualitative judgement, so for it to exist we have to have something to compare it to.
• Also argued that we have evil in the world so we develop as free individuals who make their own moral decision and are responsible for them. If everything always went our way we would never learn anything.
• When God created humans in his own image, this had to include giving us free will. We have to have the freedom to make our own choices, like God.
• He believed that God made us in his image but not his likeness, and that we must grow into his likeness.
• Irenaeus believed that if God simply gave us goodness then it wouldnt mean anything, part of being good is effort of will.
• Humanity is not capable of being in the likeness of God in this world, it only happens after death
• The afterlife does not bring an immediate end to someones spiritual journey but allows them to continue to grow on a different spiritual plane.
• Irenaean theodicy and theodicies that follow are often known as free will theodicies because of the claim that evil is a result of our freedom to choose