Hick's soul-making theodicy

• four key influences on hick's thinking:

  1. rejection of widely accepted augustinian soul-deciding theodicy as outdated and theologically unsatisfactory, and his preference for the soul-making thinking of the second-century bishop irenaeus
  2. his wish to apply modern scientific, theological and philosophical insights
  3. the need to respond to the challenges of atheism, e.g. that of mackie
  4. his religious convictions that arose out of personal experience
• humans are the high point of evolution:

  • a long evolutionary process willed by god as the source of all life has led to personal human life
  • the human telos or goal is to have a conscious and personal relationship with god
  • this can be achieved only through a free and willing response based on experience of the world with all its good and evil.
• to use John keat's phrase, the world is a 'vale of soul-making'

  • it is a world that enables spiritual growth rather than, as Augustine thought, a soul-deciding world where humans' choice of good or evil decides their eternal fate
  • the world is geared to enable spiritual growth; it is therefore not a 'paradise of pets' (hick) but one that will enable humans to become children of god.
• like irenaeus, hick had a two-stage concept of humanity

  • creation in god's image means that humans have a special character
  • people have the potential for a conscious and personal relationship with god
  • that potential is fulfilled in the afterlife
• god set an epistemic distance between himself and humanity

  • the world is religiously ambiguous, i.e. 'as if there were no god'
  • this is to allow humans full freedom to choose to have a personal relationship with god
  • a loving relationship is only authentic and only had value if it is freely chosen
  • this means that the world has to contain the full range of moral and natural evils, allowing humans to develop the second-order virtues.
• epistemic distance


  a distance of knowledge. the world operated in such a way that humans cannot know from it that there is a god.
• sin is inevitable

  • sin is a failure to live in a right relationship with god, which affects all human relationships with god, fellow humans and the rest of creation
  • alienation from god is a result of the struggle for survival in an often hostile environment
  • god permits this out of his respect for human freedom, but only he can put things right
  • this was done through christ's redeeming life, death and resurrection
• hick was a universalist

  • he rejected the ideas of hell and eternal punishment as incompatible with the omnipotence and omnibenevolence of god
  • a final rejection of god that led to eternal separation from him would mean that god's power and goodness had been defeated.
• universalism


  the belief that ultimately all humans will enjoy eternity with god, i.e. go to heaven.
• objection to hick's theodicy and his response

  the theodicy doesn't address the issue of animal suffering, since animals cannot develop spiritually

  response:

  • pain is needed to warn animals of dangers.
  • unlike humans, they do not fear future harm or death.
  • animals have to exist to stop us from realising our 'special' nature and they have to suffer to an extent that is beyond our understanding
• objection to hick's theodicy and his response

  • the concept of epistemic distance doesn't resolve the problem of purposeless evil
  • response: this has to remain a mystery as otherwise the epistemic distance would be lost and we would know that god existed and so would not freely choose a relationship with him
• objection to hick's theodicy and his response

  the theodicy doesn't justify the very worst of evils

  response:

  • if the worst evils are removed, then the next worst ones would become the worst
  • the more evils are removed, the less free and responsible humans are
• strength of hick's theodicy:

  the theodicy fits with current scientific thinking on evolution
• strength of hick's theodicy

  the idea of being at an epistemic distance from god justifies all kinds of evil and its extent since the final goal of heaven for all justifies the means.
• weakness of hicks theodicy

  if humans are evolved animals, how is it that they are in the image of god?
• weakness of hick's theodicy

  • hick's attempted justification of animal suffering is weak
  • the end doesn't justify the means. is the amount of human and animal suffering over the millennia justified by the prospect of heaven.
• strength of hick's theodicy and counter-argument

  • the claim that the concept of eternal damnation in hell is a defeat for the love of god makes sense
  • however, many christians reject this as against traditional beliefs about the work of christ, judgement, heaven and hell. moreover, if all are ultimately saved, god is ultimately overriding human freedom.