Irenaeus, Saint Augustine And Jürgen Moltmann's Theodicy
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Theodicy is defined as “the vindication of divine goodness and providence in view of the existence of evil,”1 while according to John Hick, a philosopher of religion and theologian, evil is “physical pain, mental suffering and moral wickedness” characterized by the consequence of suffering.2 Many theologians have discussed theodicy and the problem of evil in today’s society. The theologians seek an answer to the question: “If there is an omnipotent, omniscient and omnibenevolent God, how and why is there evil and suffering present in our world today?”3 Saint Irenaeus, Saint Augustine, and Jürgen Moltmann all have their own views on the subject.
Saint Irenaeus, the man behind the Irenaean Theodicy, believed that humanity was created imperfect, in the image of God but not in his likeness [will be explained further], and required nurturing in order to reach perfection spiritually.4 He also goes on to express that the spiritual growth is not acquired through evil by God. From Irenaeus’ point of view, spiritual growth is acquired by obeying God’s law; God does not interfere in human affairs to stop evil due to it interfering with free will.5…show more content… Schleiermacher. His argument was that “it was a logical contradiction to make the claim that a perfectly created world went wrong since this implies that evil created itself ex nihilno (sic) which is a logical contraction.” According to him, the world was either not perfect in its beginning or God is the reason that it went wrong. If that is the case, then he blames God and not humans causing the existence of evil not to be justified.14
Unlike that of the Irenaean and Augustine Theodicy, Jürgen Moltmann’s theodicy blames God for the evil and suffering in the world. He says that a place where the suffering of an innocent child is a possibility is a place where a God does not exist: “For a God who lets the innocent suffer and who permits senseless death is not worthy to be called God at