A world like ours: theodicy, anti-theodicy and aesthetic resources

Thesis

The main argument of the dissertation concerns theodical responses to the problem of evil, i.e. responses which attempt to defend the rationality of Christian theism by providing some possible morally justifiable reasons (MJRs) God might have for allowing evils. In the first part I offer a critical assessment of theodicies and their anti-theodical critiques. Following this critical assessment, I present some conditions for our language about divine reasons. My main claim is that we can coherently speak of God’s reasons for creating a world like ours but the way standard theodicists tend to explicate those reasons gets divine agency entangled with evils. This is a result we should avoid. Hence, I construct ‘a grammar’ for thinking about divine reasons that remains epistemically minimalistic: our access to divine reasons is limited. This epistemic minimalism, however, does not require abandoning the idea that the coherence and credibility of Christian faith can be defended against the challenge evils present to it. I support this claim by appealing to the practical resources of Christian faith and form of life, focusing especially on aesthetic religious experiences. Focusing on practical resources also brings to the foreground the way in which evils challenge some of the practical claims entailed by Christian faith and how this, pace some theodicists, presents an extended credibility challenge to central Christian claims. I argue that re-situating theodical themes in the context of religious life can also help us answer these extended challenges. The overall claim that emerges from the discussion of practical resources is that we can demonstrate the coherence and credibility of Christian faith in a world like ours by situating central theodical themes – trust and openness towards God, meaningfulness of human life and the meaning of suffering, the intelligibility of the world – in the context of religious life and its practical resources. In so doing, we can build a cumulative case towards the lived credibility of Christian faith.

Authors: Aakko, M

• DOI: 10.5287/ora-0zyzqy6rv
• Type of award: DPhil
• Level of award: Doctoral
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford
• Language: English
• Keywords: theodicy; anti-theodicy; religious experience; aesthetics
• Subjects: theology; philosophy of religion; philosophical theology