1C: Irenaen Type Theodicy

Question 1

What did Irenaeus argue?

Answer 1

• god allows evil to have a place in the world
• the world was deliberately created with a mix of good and evil so that we can grow and devlop as humans into a mature and free relationship with god
• there has to be evil in the world for us to appreciate good
• evil helps us develop as individuals
• if everything went our way, we’d never learn anything

Question 2

Irenaenus argued good is a qualitative judgement, what does this mean?

Answer 2

there must be other, less good things for the goodness to exist at all

Question 3

How did Irenaeus say we grow as individuals?

Answer 3

• tackling problems
• making mistakes
• persevering
• being patient

Question 4

Is Irenaeus’ theodicy soul making or soul deciding?

Answer 4

soul making - exists necessarily to allow our souls to develop fully

Question 5

Quote from Genesis 1:26

Answer 5

“let us make man in our image”

Question 6

How does Irenaeus’ theodicy differ from Augustine’s?

Answer 6

Irenaeus believed we weren’t created perfect but rather in a process of creation with a possibility of developing from incomplete creatures made in god’s image to completed creatures reflecting god’s likeness

Question 7

How can human perfection be attained according to Irenaeus?

Answer 7

• it must evolve through free choice amidst the challenges and struggles of life as we’ve been created incomplete
• our destiny is to experience both good and evil
• only by working through this friction can we become complete beings

Question 8

How did Irenaeus view the Fall?

Answer 8

• it was an understandable lapse enacted by immature and incomplete creatures
• suffering is not a divine punishment for adam’s sin but an intrinsic part of a divinely appointed environment designed for the fulfilment of gods plan

Question 9

Which modern scholar has developed Irenaeus’ theodicy?

Answer 9

John Hick

Question 10

What does John Hick mean by a world of soul making?

Answer 10

a loving god didn’t create a hedonistic paradise but a world in which suffering serves the end of human moral and spiritual development

Question 11

What is the greater good argument?

Answer 11

the world we have with in all it’s fault is a far more effective world for us to evolve in

Question 12

According to Hick why did god create us with free will?

Answer 12

• god wishes for us to come into a relationship with him without force
• it is only through freedom and an initial remoteness from god can the person he is looking for emerge

Question 13

What does Hick mean by epistemic distance?

Answer 13

a distance in knowledge between god and humanity

Question 14

According to Hick what would be the moral problems of living in a world where we could never do wrong?

Answer 14

• we would never do any rights in a meaningful sense
• our good virtues only develop from our suffering and evil
  “in a perfect world murder isn’t possible as the bullets would melt”

Question 15

What are three criticisms of the Irenaenan theodicy?

Answer 15

• does our world need to contain such inhumane suffering?
• can the world be seen as a training ground for soul making?
• the suffering of the innocent can never be an expression of divine love

Question 16

What is Dostoyevsky saying about good and evil in his book ‘The Brother Karamazov’?

Answer 16

• without evil we wouldn’t exist on earth as we wouldn’t have known good and evil
• the whole world of knowledge is not worth a small child’s suffering

Question 17

Why does John Hick disagree with Dostoyevsky that too high a price is paid to know ‘good from evil’?

Answer 17

he envisages a period of perfecting when the general one day in heaven will remember how he treated a small boy and feels terrible remorse of conscience and ask god for forgiveness

Question 18

What is universalism?

Answer 18

the reward (salvation) is worth it if everyone is ultimately perfected and goes to heaven

Question 19

What are the ethical problems of universalism?

Answer 19

• if everyone is to be saved, does this mean people who perpetrated hideously cruel actions in earth will never be punished?
• suffering doesn’t always lead to the development of positive human qualities

Question 20

What are the problems with the Irenaean theodicy according to Plantinga?

Answer 20

• it leads evil to spiritual disaster
• much evil seems to ellicit cruelty rather than mercy or sacrificial love

Question 21

Does Irenaeus’ theodicy solve the problem of evil? (consider moral evil, natural evil, immense suffering, premature deaths)

Answer 21

No
- some people never develop into completed creatures since they choose not to
- people misuse their free will which leads to moral evil
- HOWEVER it could be said it’s worth suffering for the greater good (jonah and the whale)
- but evil and suffering should not be used as a tool by an omnibenevolent god because hurting someone is more akin to abuse than it is to love - giving a child cancer and their suffering is not fair

Question 22

What did being made in god’s image and likeness include according to Irenaeus?

Answer 22

• giving humans free will because we have to be free to make our own choices like him
• it’s our choose whether to do something good with our lives (develop a loving relationship with god) or waste them (ignore god)
• if god didn’t give us this free will then we would not have been made in his image, we would have been puppets

Question 23

How can we reach god’s likeness according to Irenaeus?

Answer 23

• learning to overcome difficulties
• coping with our own imperfections
• resist temptation to do wrong
• it is only possible to be in god’s likeness after death,
• it is essential that everyone should love after death and everyone should eventually complete their spiritual development and maturity to become the likeness of god

Question 24

What is the analogy of Jonah and the whale?

Answer 24

• Jonah is swallowed by a whale
• lived in the whale for three days
• the whale vomited Jonah out on dry land
• suffered for the greater good

Question 25

What is the analogy of a mother feeding?

Answer 25

• a mother can hypothetically give strong food to her infant, but does not because the child cannot receive such food yet
• this means it was possible for god to make man perfect from the start, but man could not receive this perfection because they are an infant
• we have to grow into perfection

Question 26

What is the name of John Hick’s book?

Answer 26

Philosophy of Religion

Question 27

What is John Hick’s development of the Irenaean theodicy?

Answer 27

• highlighted the importance of god allowing humans to develop for themselves
• if god made us perfect then we’d have the ‘goodness’ of robots, which would automatically love god without thought
• such love would have no value
• if god wanted humans to be genuinely loving he was right to let them have the freedom to develop this love themselves

Question 28

What is epistemic distance?

Answer 28

a distance in dimension or knowledge - god is far away enough that humans are not overwhelmed by him and have no choice but to believe and obey. by keeping a distance, god allows humans to choose freely

Question 29

According to Hick why must the world be imperfect?

Answer 29

because if it were a paradise where there was no evil or suffering, humans wouldn’t be free to choose since only good could actually occur. humans would not be able to develop positive qualities such as love, honour or courage and so they would lose the opportunity to develop into gods likeness

Question 30

What is the counter factual hypothesis?

Answer 30

if god constantly interfered then humans simply could not develop

Question 31

What did Hick suggest the world was a place of?

Answer 31

soul making - humans have to face challenges in order to gain perfection

Question 32

What Biblical passage supports the idea that the world is a place of soul making?

Answer 32

St Paul: “we rejoice in our sufferings because we know that suffering produces perseverance”

Question 33

What is the concept of universal salvation unjust criticism? (include example)

Answer 33

• if humans will eventually achieve perfection no matter what they’ve done in the past, then how does this encourage good moral behaviour now?
• if the end result is guaranteed by god, what is the point of pilgrimage?
• if there is universal salvation then do we have free will to refuse to mature?
• example: do humans have the free will to revise this development to spiritual perfection?

Question 34

What is the evil and suffering should not be used as a tool by an omnibenevolent god criticism? (include example)

Answer 34

• hurting someone is more akin to abuse than it is to love
• many criticisms involve suggestions of better ways to achieve the process eg why did the natural environment have to be created through a long and painful evolutionary process?
• why could an omnipotent god do it in the ‘twinkling of an eye’?
• if we go on to another life to reach maturity, why did god not make our life spans?
• example: giving a child cancer for the greater good

Question 35

What is the immensity of suffering and unequal distribution of evil and suffering criticism? (include example)

Answer 35

• immense suffering caused by some does not make up for any possible reward of spiritual perfection
• suffering is not evenly spread
• this implies inconsistency with god’s mechanism of perfection, does the end justify the means?
• example: auschwitz during the holocaust cannot justify the ultimate joy, suffering depending on your religion

Question 36

What was DZ Phillips’ critique?

Answer 36

• believe the theodicies of Irenaeus, Hick, Swinburne etc did not provide a satisfactory understanding of god and the role of evil and suffering
• even said that they added to the evil
• argued it is never justifiable to harm someone in order to help them
• example: giving a child cancer is never acceptable

Question 37

What are some strengths of the Irenaean theodicy and what are some criticisms of them?

Answer 37

1. this is the best possible world. we need death to help us appreciate life. no suffering = no predictable laws of nature because god would have to intervene all the time to stop suffering (CR: couldn’t there be less suffering? (Hume))
2. good does come out of suffering: courage, compassion, empathy etc (CR: couldnt there be less suffering? (Hume))
3. fits in with idea of Evolution; we are developing and getting better (CR: this does not mean it is true)

Question 38

What are some weaknesses of the Irenaean theodicy and what are the criticisms of them?

Answer 38

1. couldn’t there be a bit less suffering? couldn’t we suffer more fairly? (CR: Swinburne - suffering is limited by our relatively short life spans and the fact we pass out if faced with too much pain)
2. no amount of suffering is worth it. Dostoyevsky explore this in the Brothers Karamazov (CR: suffering feels terrible to the people affected at the time, but good can come of it and often people reflect on their suffering positively)
3. is the concept of universal salvation unjust? does everyone deserve to be saved? does this mean we don’t need good faith or good works? (CR: gods benevolence means everyone is saved. gods justice means that some will take longer than others and suffer more along the way)

Question 39

How does the Brothers Karamazov relate to the problem of evil?

Answer 39

• a five year old child is tortured by her parents ruthlessly.
• how can god allow a mother to ruthlessly torture her daughter?
• children are innocent and incapable of suffering, whereas adults choose to sin

Question 40

Overall judgment of Irenaeus’ theodicy?

Answer 40

• weak but stronger than Augustine
• he correlates existence of evil with good to explain why we must endure suffering in an imperfect and flawed world, which is more valid and believable
• his point that a hedonistic paradise does not teach us anything and that evil is a tool for ‘soul making’ is good

Question 41

Why is natural evil necessary?

Answer 41

because without it, we couldn’t show second goods (eg charity and compassion)