What is the Catholic Church teaching on soul making?

• Soul-making is the theory that evil has to exist so that humans can develop their souls by living and becoming good, moral people. There are different theories on the existence of evil. These are called theodicy
• Augustine's soul deciding theory


  Augustine believed that all humans were created perfect until 'The Fall' took place as Adam and Eve misused their free will. Therefore, the origin of evil comes from humans, not God. This allows God to be omnibenevolent.
• St Irenaeus


  Stated that God made humans imperfect and is therefore partly responsible for the existence of evil. By creating imperfect humans, individuals are given the chance to develop and grow through a soul-making process into children of God.
• John Hick


  Further developed Irenaeus' theory and called his development the 'vale of soul-making'. Hick agreed that humans were created as imperfect from the start, so that they could grow and develop into the 'likeness' of God. Hick also suggested that by developing virtues through free will, they are more meaningful that if they were simply given to humans by God