Transcript HOLY SPIRIT - Erskine College

THE PROBLEM OF PAIN
The Scream, E. Munch, http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/munch/
THEODICIESJohn Hick
“All’s 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 latter’s 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 130200), 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 God’s
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 personmaking! 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 OF
John Hick
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THE PROBLEM OF PAIN
The Scream, E. Munch, http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/munch/