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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