* Irenaean theodicy

British philosopher John Hick traced the history of theodicy in his work, Evil and the God of Love, identifying two major traditions: the Augustinian theodicy, based on the writings of Augustine of Hippo, and the Irenaean theodicy, which Hick developed, based on the thinking of St Irenaeus.

* Irenaean theodicy

* Irenaean theodicy

In his work, Hick identified and distinguished between two types of philosophy: Augustinian, which had dominated Western Christianity for many centuries, and Irenaean, which was developed by the Eastern Church Father Irenaeus, a version of which Hick subscribed to himself.

* Gregory S. Neal: " The Nature of Evil and the Irenaean Theodicy " Grace Incarnate ( 1988 )

This experience inspired the text, which reflects on how evil can exist in a world governed by God ( the problem of theodicy ), and how happiness can be attainable amidst fickle fortune, while also considering the nature of happiness and God.

In Hesiod, the story of Prometheus ( and, by extension, of Pandora ) serves to reinforce the theodicy of Zeus: he is a wise and just ruler of the universe, while Prometheus is to blame for humanity's unenviable existence.

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 theodicy ( from Greek theos " god " + dike " justice ") is an attempt to resolve the evidential problem of evil by reconciling the traditional divine characteristics of omnibenevolence, omnipotence and omniscience with the occurrence of evil or suffering in the world.

A theodicy is often based on a prior natural theology, which attempts to prove the existence of God, and seeks to demonstrate that God's existence remains probable after the problem of evil is posed by giving a justification for God's permitting evil to happen.

The term theodicy was coined by German philosopher Gottfried Leibniz in his 1710 work, written in French, Essais de Théodicée sur la bonté de Dieu, la liberté de l ' homme et l ' origine du mal ( Theodicy: Essays on the Goodness of God, the Freedom of Man and the Origin of Evil ).

French philosopher Voltaire criticised Leibniz's concept of theodicy in his Poème sur le désastre de Lisbonne ( Poem on the Lisbon disaster ), suggesting that the massive destruction of innocent lives caused by the Lisbon earthquake demonstrated that God was not providing the " best of all possible worlds ".

These early religions may have avoided the question of theodicy by endowing their deities with the same flaws and jealousies that plagued humanity.

The book is a theodicy, an attempt by one Christian layman to reconcile orthodox Christian belief in a just, loving and omnipotent God with pain and suffering.

In this Haredi theodicy, the Jews of Europe were no longer protected by the Torah and faith, and the actions of God which allowed this were righteous and just.

Cousin made no reply to Hamilton's criticism beyond alleging that Hamilton's doctrine necessarily restricted human knowledge and certainty to psychology and logic, and destroyed metaphysics by introducing nescience and uncertainty into its highest sphere — theodicy.

The event was widely discussed and dwelt upon by European Enlightenment philosophers, and inspired major developments in theodicy and in the philosophy of the sublime.

Divine Providence is a book published by Emanuel Swedenborg in 1764 which describes his systematic theology regarding providence, free will, theodicy, and other related topics.

This doctrine was the source of great controversy because it was seen by the so-called anti-Calvinists to limit man's free will in regard to faith and salvation, and to present a dilemma in terms of theodicy.

Paley's benevolent God acted in nature though uniform and universal laws, not arbitrary miracles or changes of laws, and this use of secondary laws provided a theodicy explaining the problem of evil by separating nature from direct divine action, drawing directly on the ideas of Thomas Malthus.

Essais de Théodicée sur la bonté de Dieu, la liberté de l ' homme et l ' origine du mal ( French: Essays of theodicy on the goodness of God, the freedom of man and the origin of evil ), more simply known as Théodicée, is a book of philosophy by the German polymath Gottfried Leibniz.

Others, such as the Christian philosopher Alvin Plantinga criticized Leibniz theodicy by arguing that probably there is not such a thing as the best of all possible worlds, since one can always conceive a better world, such as a world with one more morally righteous person.

In the twentieth century, John Hick collated the ideas of Irenaeus into a distinct theodicy.

St Augustine of Hippo ( 354 AD – 430 ) in his Augustinian theodicy focuses on the Genesis story that essentially dictates that God created the world and that it was good ; evil is merely a consequence of the fall of man ( The story of the Garden of Eden where Adam and Eve disobeyed God and caused inherent sin for man ).

The Augustinian theodicy is based on the writings of Augustine of Hippo, a Christian philosopher and theologian who lived from 354 to 430 AD.

Human beings are troubled, he says, with the question of theodicy – the question of how the extraordinary power of a divine god may be reconciled with the imperfection of the world that he has created and rules over.

Of particular note were Fathers Gerhard Schneemann, Theodor Granderath and Florian Reiss, who produced a number of important works: the " Collectio lacensis " (" Acta et decreta sacrorum conciliorum recentiorum ", 7 volumes, Freiburg, 1870 – 1890 ); the " Philosophia lacensis ", a collection of learned books on the different branches of philosophy ( logic, cosmology, psychology, theodicy, natural law ) and published at Freiburg, 1880 – 1900 ; and, perhaps best-known, the " Stimmen aus Maria-Laach " (" Voices from Maria Laach "), appearing from 1865, at first as individual pamphlets defending against liberalism within the Roman Catholic church, and from 1871 as a regular periodical.

The central theological themes are " the question of theodicy, God's justness in the face of the triumph of the heathens over the pious, the course of world history in terms of the teaching of the four kingdoms, the function of the law, the eschatological judgment, the appearance on Earth of the heavenly Jerusalem, the Messianic Period, at the end of which the Messiah will die, the end of this world and the coming of the next, and the Last Judgment.

According to Reinhold F. Glei, it is settled that the argument of theodicy is from an academic source which is not only not epicurean, but even anti-epicurean.

Written following the death of his son, Aaron, from the premature aging disease progeria, the book deals with questions about human suffering, God, omnipotence and theodicy.

The concept of theodicy was expanded mainly with the thought of Weber and his addition of ethical considerations to the subject of religion.

There is this ethical part of religion, including "( 1 ) soteriology and ( 2 ) theodicy.

The concept of " work ethic " is attached to the theodicy of fortune ; thus, because of the Protestant " work ethic ," there was a contribution of higher class outcomes and more education amongst Protestants.

Those without the work ethic clung to the theodicy of misfortune, believing wealth and happiness were granted in the afterlife.

Another example of how this belief of religious theodicy influences class, is that those of lower status, the poor, cling to deep religiousness and faith as a way to comfort themselves and provide hope for a more prosperous future, whilst those of higher status cling to the sacraments or actions which prove their right of possessing greater wealth.

The main division can be seen between the mainline Protestant and evangelical denominations and their relation to the class in to which their particular theodicy pertains.

In contrast, Pentecostal churches adopted the theodicy of misfortune.

Thus the learned and upper class religious churches who preach the theodicy of fortune, ultimately support capitalism and corporation, while the churches who adopted the theodicy of misfortune, instead preached equality and fairness.

In 1734, when an artillery school was established with French teachers in order to impart Western-style artillery methods, the Islamic clergy successfully objected under the grounds of theodicy.

In all literary versions, however, the myth is a kind of theodicy, addressing the question of why there is evil in the world.

For Weber, religion is best understood as it responds to the human need for theodicy and soteriology.

A theodicy, on the other hand, is more ambitious, since it attempts to provide a plausible justification — a morally sufficient reason — for the existence of evil and thereby rebut the " evidential " argument from evil.

Richard Swinburne maintains that it does not make sense to assume there are greater goods that justify the evil's presence in the world unless we know what they are — without knowledge of what the greater goods could be, one cannot have a successful theodicy.

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

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 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.