The Soul Making Theodicy
Cards (18)
- John Hick
- 1922- 2012
- Philosopher of religion and theologian
- Taught in the US for most of his career
- Theodicy- a philosophical defence of God's goodness, power and even existence in the face of the reality of evil
- Hick rejects Augustinian views:
- Natural evil exists because of the fall
- Women are the "devil's gateway"
- Women allowed moral evil into the world
- Hick called Augustinian views "utterly unacceptable" and "a product of religious imagination"
- Hick liked Irenaeus's views
- Humanity did not fall from perfection, but were rather created as imperfect beings with the ability to become children of God
- Hick believed that just as children learn to love their father, humans learn to love God
- God does not shield humans, similar to how parents do not shield their children
- God creates humans and then lets them develop character
- As children do, the human race will mature and will respond with love to God
- Hick says "God is infinitely persuasive, every individual will be brought into a moral and spiritual relationship with God"
- A loving father would not put his children in hell
- People need free will to choose God
- Epistemic distance
- A distance of knowledge
- People would lose their freedom if they knew for certain that there was a God
- Weaknesses
- Does not justify animal suffering
- There are pointless evils in this world
- It does not justify the worst evils
- Hick's response to animal suffering
- Animals do not fear death
- Pain is a warning sign to animals, it's an evolutionary mechanism
- Hick's response to pointless evils
- We cannot know everything
- If we knew everything, we would not have fear nor hope
- Hick's response to the worst evils
- There is always a "worst" evil
- Removing one worst evil would just lead to another developing
- More evil removed= less freedom
- Strengths
- Fits with scientific knowledge and biblical criticism
- Concept of God as a "fellow sufferer"
- No conflict between omnibenevolence and evil