Abstract

This dissertation defends the theodicy developed by John Hick in Evil and the God of Love. This theodicy has been critically attacked on both philosophical and theological fronts. From the former are five criticisms: it cannot account for excessive and gratuitous evil; it cannot account for instances of insanity; it does not satisfactorily show how a person might not spiral downward in imperfection rather than upward; it does not satisfactorily account for animal pain; the notion of epistemic distance negates moral freedom. Chapter Two of my dissertation defends Hick's theodicy against these criticisms. ;From the theological front, objections divide into what I call philosophical theological and dogmatic theological criticisms. Under the former are two: Hick's theodicy jettison's natural theology and thus severs all prospects for a viable theodicy; having rejected natural theology, Hick justifies religious belief on the basis of religious experience. But this only works in the absence of reasonable grounds to doubt it, which evil allegedly does. In Chapter Three I answer these objections. ;The dogmatic theological criticisms each involve long held Christian beliefs, which are removed from Hick's theodicy. Among these are the Fall, Hell, and transformation at death to perfection. Hick instead argues for the gradual perfection of each individual. Chapter Three critically defends Hick over these objections. ;After writing Evil and the God of Love, Hick has since moved his thinking into the area of religious pluralism, where he seeks to show that Christianity is but one of many available authentic faiths. In Chapter Four I show how his theodicy has led him to religious pluralism. Specifically, two elements in his theodicy made this further development in his thinking necessary: his universalism counts against the idea that there is only one true religion; defending the rationality of religious belief on the basis of religious experience implies that different religious experiences justify different religious beliefs