John Hick a British Philosopher was born in 1922 in the United Kingdom. Hick also is credited as a profound religious epistemologist, philosophical theologist, and religious pluralist (Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2015). Hick contributed largely to the world of theology, writing one of his more famous works, Evil and the God of Love, where the chapter Soul-Making Theodicy is included (Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2015).
The attempt to explain the presence of evil, pain, and suffering has been asked and investigated throughout the centuries by philosophers, theologists, and lay man alike. The modern world is raw, yet pure, full of evil, yet full of beauty. The western belief in a God as an all-knowing, omnipotent, and beneficent …show more content…
According to Hick, the Augustinian approach hinges solely on man’s fall from morality, which has led to the disharmony of nature (pg.358). The free will defense strives to support the view that God, the omnipotent being he/she has been constructed to be, has granted man the freedom to choose between “right” and “wrong”, no longer holding the responsibility of the occurrence of evil. The man’s choice to “choose” evil and has given rise to the misuse of this freedom furthering degrading the society in which we live. Hick describes the “fall from grace” or temptation to commit evil acts is labeled by Augustine as the flaw of man lacks plausibility and speaks to the inconsistency of the free will defense. Arguably, the question arises that why would a God that is all-powerful allow for the decay and death of his creation, permitting evil to enter the physical …show more content…
The Irenaeus belief that the creation of humankind in God’s likeness is an evolutionary process that takes continuous growth and development. Further, the complex struggle for survival and hostile environment in which we live requires spiritual and intellectual maturity to navigate the moral social demand. In other words, people were created as spiritually and morally immature creatures, only in the beginning stages of a long process of growth and development (p. 359). According to Irenaeus, humankind has committed youthful errors rather than an infinite crime that has ruined the whole of creation (p.359). If we accept the Irenaeus perspective we are accepting the fact that at righteousness and grace were lost, nor was there ever a fall from grace, but think of an unrealized future of good
The attempt to explain the presence of evil, pain, and suffering has been asked and investigated throughout the centuries by philosophers, theologists, and lay man alike. The modern world is raw, yet pure, full of evil, yet full of beauty. The western belief in a God as an all-knowing, omnipotent, and beneficent …show more content…
According to Hick, the Augustinian approach hinges solely on man’s fall from morality, which has led to the disharmony of nature (pg.358). The free will defense strives to support the view that God, the omnipotent being he/she has been constructed to be, has granted man the freedom to choose between “right” and “wrong”, no longer holding the responsibility of the occurrence of evil. The man’s choice to “choose” evil and has given rise to the misuse of this freedom furthering degrading the society in which we live. Hick describes the “fall from grace” or temptation to commit evil acts is labeled by Augustine as the flaw of man lacks plausibility and speaks to the inconsistency of the free will defense. Arguably, the question arises that why would a God that is all-powerful allow for the decay and death of his creation, permitting evil to enter the physical …show more content…
The Irenaeus belief that the creation of humankind in God’s likeness is an evolutionary process that takes continuous growth and development. Further, the complex struggle for survival and hostile environment in which we live requires spiritual and intellectual maturity to navigate the moral social demand. In other words, people were created as spiritually and morally immature creatures, only in the beginning stages of a long process of growth and development (p. 359). According to Irenaeus, humankind has committed youthful errors rather than an infinite crime that has ruined the whole of creation (p.359). If we accept the Irenaeus perspective we are accepting the fact that at righteousness and grace were lost, nor was there ever a fall from grace, but think of an unrealized future of good