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Good and Evil
Various Responses to the Theodicy
Question
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God is all powerful
God is Good
Evil
exists
?
Theodicy=defense of God
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Who are we going to study?
St. Augustine
Martin Luther
John Hick
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St. Augustine
Born in 354 in what is
now Algeria
At 17 went to Carthage
and studied rhetoric
Lived a licentious life
Converted to Christianity
Became Bishop of Hippo
Wrote City of God,
Confessions, and De
Trinitate
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God is all powerful
God is goodEvil exists--
well sort of
?
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Augustines Theodicy
God is absolute goodness andperfection
Gods original plan for creation wasperfect harmony where the creatureswould desire God
Adam perverted the will and turnedaway from God in an attempt to governhimself
We have inherited this sin
We still desire good, BUT we cantdiscern perfectly what it is
Evil is the loss of our capacity to desireonly good
Evil is a deprivation of good
God uses evil to accomplish Gods will
No separate evil force
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Martin Luther
Born in 1483 in Eisenben
Germany
While he studied to become a
lawyer, he eventually became amonk.
Argued that salvation comes
through faith not works
Anti indulgences
Began Protestant Reformation
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Evil ExistsGod is good
Good and Evil are going at it but not equally
?
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Luthers Thoughts
Luther has a notion of two worlds:The Kingdom of God and theKingdom of Evil
Satan is the Prince of the Kingdom
of Evil which is the world we livein
Two kingdoms contest against eachother
HOWEVER, Satan is a createdbeing who is not equal to God
Satan cannot destroy Godscreation or order
BUT is able to sow evil in it
Luthers inkwell
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It is the policy of the Devil to
convince us there is no Devil
Richard GreenhamEnglish Puritan
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M. Scott Peck
Popular Psychologist
People of the Lie
Peck refers to a diabolic dualism
Evil is not of Gods creation but a cancer
beyond his control
Evil is a disease which can be cured
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John Hick
Born in 1922 in England
Professor who taught at
Cornell, Princeton, and
Cambridge
VP of the World Congress
of Faith
In debate with Pope
Benedict
According to Benedict--
heretic
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Hicks ideas are based on St. Irenaeus
Irenaeus was Bishop of Lugdunumin Gaul (Lyons)
Humans were not created perfectlyby God hence there could be no
Fall.However, humans were created inthe image of God
As we go through life we try tomove from imperfection to alikeness of God
Do so by discerning good from evilEvil teaches us and allows us tobecome closer to God.
Avoid evil that we encounter hencewe grow in our likeness of God
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So
Hick starts by dismissing what he calls Christian myth (those things
which have no scientific proof) such as the Devil or the Fall.
Hick then talks about the workings of Irenaeus where a human moves
from a imperfect state to a likeness of God
As the individual lives he or she acts and reacts to life. These things
teach us about life and about good and evil and these lessons move us
closer to a likeness of God
So evil is a tool which teaches us and according to Hick moves us
closer to God
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Questions?????
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Thanks
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