Theodicy

Theodicy. The justification of God, in response to the charge that the evils of the world are incompatible with his omnipotence and perfect goodness. The word was coined by Leibniz in his Theodicy (1710), in which he argued that this world is the best of all possible worlds. John Hick, in his Evil and the God of Love (1966) claimed to discern two traditions of Christian theodicy: the Augustinian, which stresses the role of the Fall, seeing evil as either sin or the result of sin; and the Irenaean, which regards evil more as a feature of an evolving universe and the result of human immaturity: the world, with its tests, becomes ‘a vale of soul-making’. Both positions (though without the specific appeal to the Fall) can be found in all theistic religions.

In Eastern religions, the issue of theodicy is not so acute, either because the understandings of cosmogony are diffused, or because there is no belief in a God who is responsible for creation (Jains and Buddhists). For Indian religions, the understanding of karma in any case gives more direct answers to the questions of the occurrence and distribution of suffering. For Hindus, the sense of God participating in the conquest of evil is strong (e.g. Kṛṣṇa in Bhagavad-gītā).

The term ‘theodicy’ received a different analysis in the work of Weber, for whom theodicy is central in his understanding of religions. In his view, religions offer theodicies, not simply as abstract solutions to intellectual puzzles, but as programmes for action.

From the adopted theodicy of a particular religion flow social consequences which give to different societies their characteristic forms and actions (or lack of them). His extension of the concept of theodicy drew attention to the dynamic consequences of theodicy and the quest for salvation (or its equivalent) in the forming of religious societies. See also EVIL.