Page "Problem of evil" Paragraph 47

Distinctive of the soul-making theodicy is the claim that evil and suffering are necessary for spiritual growth.

This theodicy was developed by the second-century Christian theologian, Irenaeus of Lyons, and its most recent and outspoken advocate has been the influential philosopher of religion, John Hick.

A perceived inadequacy with the theodicy is that many evils do not seem to promote such growth, and can be positively destructive of the human spirit.

A second issue concerns the distribution of evils suffered: were it true that God permitted evil in order to facilitate spiritual growth, then we would expect evil to disproportionately befall those in poor spiritual health.

This does not seem to be the case, as the decadent enjoy lives of luxury which insulate them from evil, whereas many of the pious are poor, and are well acquainted with worldly evils.

A third problem attending this theodicy is that the qualities developed through experience with evil seem to be useful precisely because they are useful in overcoming evil.

But if there were no evil, then there would seem to be no value in such qualities, and consequently no need for God to permit evil in the first place.

Against this it may be asserted that the qualities developed are intrinsically valuable, but this view would need further justification.