Philosophy of Religion - Hick: Ch. 4

(Originally written January 31, 2007 in Book 7)

Philosophy of Religion
John Hick
Ch. 4 - The Problem of Evil

The Problem

The main reason people cannot believe in a loving God is the depth and extent of human suffering and the selfishness and greed of humanity.

Evil - physical pain, mental suffering, and moral wickedness.

Moral wickedness is the cause of physical pain and mental suffering.

The form of the problem of evil is often a dilemma:
1) If God is perfectly loving, God must want to abolish all evil
2) If God is all-powerful, He must be able to abolish all evil
3) Evil exists
4) Theefore, God cannot be both omnipotent and perfectly loving.

One possible solution is to state that evil is an illusion of the human mind. But, this is unacceptable in the Judaeo-Christian tradition.

There are three main Christian responses to the problem of evil:
1) Augustinian - the concept of the Fall
2) Irenaeus - gradual creation of perfected humanity through life in an imperfect world
3) Process theology - God is not all-powerful

All three use the free will defense. Humans are free to act wrongly and rightly. It states that a genuinely free moral agent and the possibility of evil are logically inseparable.

The Augustinian Theodicy

Augustine held that evil has a negative or privative nature. He holds the universe to be a creation by a good God for a good purpose. Everything that has being is good because it has been created. Some things with being are more good and others are less good. Evil is a going wrong of something inherently good. "Evil always consists of the malfunctioning of something that is in itself good" (Hick, 43).

Evil came about when angels turned from the Supreme Good (God) to lesser goods. The same happened with Adam and Eve.

The natural evils are thus punishments and a result of the chaos man has thrown upon his dominion.

Friedrich Schleiermacher (1768-1834) a German Protestant, was the first to criticize Augustine. He stated how could a perfect God create a perfect universe that somehow went wrong? Basically a flawless creation would never go wrong.

The Irenaean Theodicy

St. Irenaeus (130-202 A.D.) distinguished between two stages of creation of humanity.

Creation - they were created as immature creatures
Maturation process (life) - they matured into the children of God

God's purpose in creation was not to construct a paradise. It was made to create souls who would inherit eternal life through struggle and maturity.

Process Theodicy

Process theology is built upon the metaphysical framework of A. N. Whitehead's philosophy. Process theology holds that God cannot be omnipotent. He interacts with he process of the universe, which he didn't create but is able to influence.

Process theology holds that God is a part of the universe which is an uncreated process.

Evil is the event when the power of God's will is thwarted.

Process theodicy has been severely criticized. One criticism is that it involves a morally and religiously unacceptable elitism. God is somehow satisfied with the mass majority suffering and living unfulfilled lives so that a few can become marvelous human beings.