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John Hick soul-making theodicy

John Hick soul-making theodicy. Hick first presented this theodicy in Evil and the God of Love in 1966 (revised in 1978). It is a modern classic. 1. Presuppositions God exists & is good and limitlessly powerful. John Hick soul-making theodicy.

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John Hick soul-making theodicy

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  1. John Hick soul-making theodicy • Hick first presented this theodicy in Evil and the God of Love in 1966 (revised in 1978). It is a modern classic. • 1. Presuppositions • God exists & is good and limitlessly powerful John Hick's soul-making theodicy - 1

  2. John Hick soul-making theodicy • Humans are on a pilgrimage. What is the pilgrimage all about? What is the goal of the pilgrimage? (287, 290) • 2. Criticisms of Augustine’s theodicy • The Golden Age & fall is a myth • Fall of the angels is logically implausible John Hick's soul-making theodicy - 2

  3. John Hick soul-making theodicy • Aside: Hick’s proposed interpretation of the meaning of the Garden fall story • Expresses the gap between what we are and what God intends us to be eventually (284). • 3. Hick’s theodicy - Irenaean • Inspired by Irenaeus’s (120-202 A.D.) use of the pilgrimage metaphor John Hick's soul-making theodicy - 3

  4. John Hick soul-making theodicy • Is consonant with evolution. • The 2 stages of evolution -- image & likeness, bios & zoe • Contra Augustine, under the pilgrimate model, perfection lies in the future not in the past John Hick's soul-making theodicy - 4

  5. John Hick soul-making theodicy • What kind of a world and what kind of human nature is required for such a pilgrimage? What are the conditions for the possibility of soul-making? • Humans must be free • Requires a degree of autonomy • Requires epistemic distance (without this humans would not be free) John Hick's soul-making theodicy - 5

  6. John Hick soul-making theodicy • Nature also must have a degree of autonomy (perhaps more appropriately semi-autonomy) • Counter-factual pictures of the world (289). The world must be a relatively stable & consistent place in order for humans to engage in the pilgrimage, in order to make moral choices & pursue knowledge. • This explains non-moral evil John Hick's soul-making theodicy - 6

  7. John Hick soul-making theodicy • 4. Cleaning up loose ends • The intensity of evil • Evil strikes indiscriminately (the story of Job) • Consider counter-factual situation • Soul-making is incomplete & even a failure for many John Hick's soul-making theodicy - 7

  8. John Hick soul-making theodicy • Critical evaluation • What saves this theodicy from being a simple character-building theodicy (cf. football coach)? • Hick’s theory applies not only to individual but to history of humankind, the evolutionary process John Hick's soul-making theodicy - 8

  9. John Hick soul-making theodicy • Evil exists not only for soul-making but also to make genuine freedom possible; the possibility of evil is a necessary condition for freedom, & freedom is a necessary condition for soul-making • Does the theodicy require us to accept too many presuppositons? • Response: This is the nature of grand systems. John Hick's soul-making theodicy - 9

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