HOLY SPIRIT

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THE PROBLEM OF PAIN
The Scream, E. Munch, http//www.ibiblio.org/wm/pa
int/auth/munch/
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THEODICIES-John HickAlls well that ends well
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THEODICIES Hick

• An Irenaean Theodicy, Encountering Evil, 38-52
• Can a world in which sadistic cruelty often has
  its way, in which selfish lovelessness is so
  rife, in which there are debilitating diseases,
  crippling accidents, bodily and mental decay,
  insanity, and all manner of natural disasters be
  regarded as the expression of infinite creative
  goodness? EE, 38

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THEODICIES Hick

• Certainly all this could never by itself lead
  anyone to believe in the existence of a
  limitlessly powerful God. And yet even in such a
  world, innumerable men and women have believed
  and do believe in the reality of an infinite
  creative goodness, which they call God. The
  theodicy project starts at this point- with an
  already operating belief in God, embodied in
  human living- and attempts to show that this
  belief is not rendered irrational by the fact of
  evil. EE, 38

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THEODICIES Hick

• The two main demands upon a theodicy hypothesis
  are that it be (1) internally coherent, and (2)
  consistent with the data both of the religious
  tradition on which it is based, and of the world,
  in respect both of the latters general character
  as revealed by scientific enquiry and of the
  specific facts of moral and natural evil. These
  two criteria demand, respectively, possibility
  and plausibility. EE, 38-39

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THEODICIES Hick

• Two approaches
• The Augustinian approach, representing until
  fairly recently the majority report of the
  Christian mind, hinges upon the idea of the fall
  as the origin of moral evil, which has in turn
  brought about the almost universal carnage of
  nature. EE, 39
• The Irenaean approach, representing in the past
  a minority report, hinges upon the creation of
  humankind through the evolutionary process as an
  immature creature living in a challenging and
  therefore person-making world. EE, 39

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THEODICIES Hick

• Hick is not convinced that the Free-Will
  Defense is sound. EE, 39
• Most educated inhabitants of the modern world
  regard the biblical story of Adam and Eve, and
  their temptation by the devil, as myth rather
  than as history. . . . EE, 39
• A theodicy based on the Augustinian notion of
  creation and fall is radically implausible. EE,
  40

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THE IMAGE OF GOD Irenaus

• Irenaus, Bishop of Lyons (c. AD 130-200), wrote
  Against Heresies
• Image of God remains Likeness lost in the
  fall (the sanctity given by the Holy Spirit, or
  spirit was lost)
• Unbelievers have souls and bodies retain the
  image or rationality
• Believers have body, soul, and spirit

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THEODICIES Hick

• Re-expressing this concept in modern terms, the
  first stage was the gradual production of homo
  sapiens, through the long evolutionary process,
  as intelligent ethical and religious animals.
  EE, 40
• In other words, people were created as
  spiritually and morally immature creatures, at
  the beginning of a long process of further growth
  and development, which constitutes the second
  stage of Gods creative work. EE, 41

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THEODICIES Hick

• There is no actual fall, but fall may be used
  to describe the immense gap between what we
  actually are and what in the divine intention we
  are eventually to become. EE, 41
• Humans must live at an epistemic distance from
  God, in a world in which God is not
  overwhelmingly evident. EE, 42
• Friction and tension are necessary for moral
  development. EE, 43

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THEODICIES Hick

• We have thus far, then, the hypothesis that
  humanity is created at an epistemic distance from
  God in order to come freely to know and love
  their Maker and that they are at the same time
  created as morally immature and imperfect beings
  in order to attain through freedom the most
  valuable quality of goodness. EE, 44
• But- there is still the question of why does God
  create a world so filled with pain and suffering?
  EE, 45

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THEODICIES Hick

• We have the hypothesis of humankind being
  brought into being within the evolutionary
  process as a spiritually and morally immature
  creature, and then growing and developing through
  the exercise of freedom in this religiously
  ambiguous world. EE, 45
• We can now ask what sort of a world would
  constitute an appropriate environment for this
  second stage of creation? The development of
  human personality- moral, spiritual, and
  intellectual- is a product of challenge and
  response that would not occur in a static
  situation demanding no exertion and no choices.
  EE, 46

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THEODICIES Hick

• A world without the potential for evil and
  suffering is a world in which there can be no
  moral development. EE, 47
• Only in the midst of struggle can people develop
  in intelligence and in such qualities as courage
  and determination. EE, 47
• We must trust in God even in the midst of deep
  suffering, for in the end we shall participate in
  the divine kingdom. EE, 49

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THEODICIES Hick

• Hick notes that a person-making environment
  cannot be free from pain- but asks if it must
  contain the worst forms of disease and
  catastrophe? EE, 49
• His answer is that if we could see that all the
  suffering is justified, the world would no longer
  be religiously ambiguous and therefore
  person-making! EE, 49-50
• The fact that natural evil is not morally
  directed, but is a hazard that comes by chance,
  is thus an intrinsic feature of a person-making
  world. EE, 50

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THEODICIES Hick

• Finally, there is an eschatological dimension to
  this theodicy. Hick says this person-making
  process, leading eventually to perfect human
  community, is obviously not completed on this
  earth. EE, 51
• Therefore if we are ever to reach the full
  realization of the potentialities of our human
  nature, this fulfillment can only come in a
  continuation of our lives in another sphere of
  existence after bodily death. EE, 51

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CRITIQUE OFJohn Hick
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THE PROBLEM OF PAIN
The Scream, E. Munch, http//www.ibiblio.org/wm/pa
int/auth/munch/