Learning Theodicy

Learning Theodicy
Author: Paul Vermeer
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 205
Release: 2023-08-28
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 900466341X

This volume deals with theodicy as a subject-matter for religious education. In order to enable people to reflect on the theodicy issue, to deal with their religious doubts and perhaps even to cope with suffering, it is very important that religious education is attentative to the problem of evil. But is it possible to ‘learn’ theodicy? And, if so, what does ‘learning’ mean in this respect? What kind of aims and objectives are desirable and attainable here? These theoretical issues are addressed in the first part of this book. The second part reports on empirical research conducted on the effects of an experimental theodicy course designed for third grade students of lower level secondary schools. As the research findings indicate, it is indeed possible to ‘learn’ something about theodicy.

The Book of Theodicy

The Book of Theodicy
Author: Ben Joseph Al-Fayyumi Saadiah
Publisher: Yale University Press
Total Pages: 518
Release: 1988-01-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9780300037432

Born in Egypt in 882, Saadiah Gaon was the first systematic philosopher of Judaism, the father of both scientific biblical exegesis and Jewish philosophic philosophy. In this book, L.E. Goodman presents the first English translation of Saadiah's important Book of Theodicy, a commentary on the Book of Job. Goodman's translation preserves Saadiah's penetrating naturalism, tenacity of theme and argument, and sensitivity to the nuances of poetic language.

Learning Theodicy

Learning Theodicy
Author: Paul Vermeer
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 216
Release: 1999
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9789004116504

This publication contains a practical-theological study on the problem of theodicy as a subject-matter for religious education. It offers new insights on how the problem of evil may be dealt with in the classroom.

Pathways in Theodicy

Pathways in Theodicy
Author: Mark S. M. Scott
Publisher: Fortress Press
Total Pages: 248
Release: 2015-05-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1451469802

Why does God permit evil and suffering? This question, known as the problem of evil in theological and philosophical circles, has perennially vexed Christian theology. Academic studies on the problem of evil, however, have failed to move the conversation forward in recent years. In this volume, designed for students and scholars alike, Mark S. M. Scott traces the major models and motifs in Christian explanations for evil (called theodicies) and argues for a thorough rethinking of the problem of evil and theodicy based on distinctly Christian theological criteria and resources.

Theodicy

Theodicy
Author: Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz
Publisher: DigiCat
Total Pages: 409
Release: 2022-11-13
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN:

"Theodicy" is a book of philosophy by the German polymath Gottfried Leibniz published in 1710, whose optimistic approach to the problem of evil is thought to have inspired Voltaire's "Candide". Much of the work consists of a response to the ideas of the French philosopher Pierre Bayle, with whom Leibniz carried on a debate for many years. The "Theodicy" tries to justify the apparent imperfections of the world by claiming that it is optimal among all possible worlds. It must be the best possible and most balanced world, because it was created by an all powerful and all knowing God, who would not choose to create an imperfect world if a better world could be known to him or possible to exist. In effect, apparent flaws that can be identified in this world must exist in every possible world, because otherwise God would have chosen to create the world that excluded those flaws. Leibniz distinguishes three forms of evil: moral, physical, and metaphysical. Moral evil is sin, physical evil is pain, and metaphysical evil is limitation. God permits moral and physical evil for the sake of greater goods, and metaphysical evil is unavoidable since any created universe must necessarily fall short of God's absolute perfection.

Non-identity Theodicy

Non-identity Theodicy
Author: Vince R. Vitale
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 273
Release: 2020
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0198864221

This is an open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International licence. It is free to read at Oxford Scholarship Online and offered as a free PDF download from OUP and selected open access locations. Questions as personal as those about suffering require a very personal response. However, the most popular responses to the problem of evil revolve around abstract discussions of greater goods, maximization of value, and best possible worlds, depicting God as at best an impartial bureaucrat and at worst a utility fanatic, rather than as a loving parent concerned first and foremost for his children. Vince R. Vitale develops Non-Identity Theodicy as an original response to the problem of evil. He begins by recognizing that horrendous evils pose distinctive challenges for belief in God. The book constructs an ethical framework for theodicy by sketching four cases of human action where horrendous evils are either caused, permitted, or risked, either for pure benefit or for harm avoidance. This framework is then brought to bear on the project of theodicy. The initial conclusions drawn impugn the dominant structural approach of depicting God as causing or permitting horrors in individual lives for the sake of some merely pure benefit. This approach is insensitive to relevant asymmetries in the justificatory demands made by horrendous and non-horrendous evil and in the justificatory work done by averting harm and bestowing pure benefit. Vitale then critiques theodicies that depict God as permitting or risking horrors in order to avert greater harm. The second half of this book develops a theodicy that falls outside of the proposed taxonomy. Non-Identity Theodicy suggests that God allows evil because it is a necessary condition of creating individual people whom he desires to love. This approach to theodicy is unique because the justifying good recommended is neither harm-aversion nor pure benefit. It is not a good that betters the lives of individual human persons--for they would not exist otherwise, but it is the individual human persons themselves.

Deconstructing Theodicy

Deconstructing Theodicy
Author: David Burrell
Publisher: Brazos Press
Total Pages: 144
Release: 2008-03
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1587432226

Drawing on Islamic as well as Christian sources, David Burrell provocatively shows that Job does not explain the problem of evil.

Theodicy and Hope in the Book of the Twelve

Theodicy and Hope in the Book of the Twelve
Author: George Athas
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 299
Release: 2021-06-03
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0567695360

This volume explores the themes of theodicy and hope in both individual portions of the Twelve (books and sub-sections) and in the Book of the Twelve as a whole, as the contributors use a diversity of approaches to the text(s) with a particular interest in synchronic perspectives. While these essays regularly engage the mostly redactional scholarship surrounding the Book of Twelve, there is also an examination of various forms of literary analysis of final text forms, and engagement in descriptions of the thematic and theological perspectives of the individual books and of the collection as a whole. The synchronic work in these essays is thus in regular conversation with diachronic research, and as a general rule they take various conclusions of redactional research as a point of departure. The specific themes, theodicy and hope, are key ideas that have provided the opportunity for contributors to explore individual books or sub-sections within the Twelve, and the overarching development (in both historical and literary terms) and deployment of these themes in the collection.

God, Evil, and Human Learning

God, Evil, and Human Learning
Author: Fred Berthold Jr.
Publisher: State University of New York Press
Total Pages: 118
Release: 2012-02-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0791485307

God, Evil, and Human Learning explores the age-old question: How is it possible to believe in the God of the Christian faith when the world contains so many grievous evils? Author Fred Berthold Jr. examines the most influential argument used by Christian theologians to answer that question, the "free will defense," which holds that God is not responsible for the evil in the world, but that evil arises from the human misuse of free will. He points out the weaknesses of this defense and provides a more adequate concept of free will. Berthold argues that free will is a complex of abilities which are acquired—if acquired—through human learning in the context of experiences of actual goods and evils and their consequences. He revises the "free will defense" and offers a new view of the relationship between God and his creatures.