Tabor Hill College-OAD INC

Brgy. San Jose, Talamban, Cebu City

Department of Philosophy
PHILO 16: Theodicy

Lecturer: Fr. Kenneth Ekene Onwusaka, O.A.D. (M.A-Rel. Studies, M.A Philo, PhD-
Ongoing at University of San Carlos, Cebu City).
Schedule: Wednesday, 10:00-12:00n
Contact: kensakacm@yahoo.com, ekenekenneth91@gmail.com. 09322544650

Course Description
This course examines the justification of the ways of God to humanity. As a course in
theodicy, it attempts to vindicate goodness and justice of God in ordaining or allowing moral and
natural evil and human suffering. It draws compatibility between Divine Omnipotence and
Omnibenevolence, with the existence of evil in the world, thereby defending the belief that this
is the best of all possible worlds.
Theodicy reflects on the emergence of one of the key elements of modern thinking, that is
the focus upon the historically concrete situations. This will be linked to questions about God’s
providence, evil, and suffering that took on a specific profile by the end of the 16 th century in
Western Europe, in the face of actual events and experiences. Having looked at treatments of
these elements in the early and medieval Church, and on challenges from the 16 th century, we
concentrate on the 17th and 18th century, first looking at discussions of violence, then natural
history, and finally circling around the debate over theodicy as Leibniz articulated it, and
critiques of his scheme by Voltaire and others.
The Lisbon earthquake of 1755, Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami in 2004, and the
super typhoon Haiyan-typhoon Yolanda in the Philippines in 2013, are key examples. We shall
also look into some other matters of concern such as the deadliest atomic bomb in Hiroshima
Japan, and the covid-19 pandemic. We shall do a contemporary reflection on theology’s
responsibility to theological challenges. The readings deal with both ‘natural and human-caused
evil, and will try to root discussions in aspects of the writers studied.

Course Outcomes

The students are deemed to have successfully completed the course when they are able to:
(1) explain the meaning of theodicy and why we study theodicy,
(2) explain various positions of the different philosophers who enunciated their views;
(3) critically assess the different philosophical arguments proffered by various philosophers;
(4) demonstrate a deep philosophical view on the varying issues on theodicy; and
(5) develop and present a research paper on an issue on the course.

Course Contents

Week 1 Introduction of the course, etymology and Meaning of Theodicy.

Distinctions between theodicy, philosophy of God and natural theology.

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Week 2 Divine Operations: God is personal, Divine knowledge, Divine Will, Divine
Omnipotence, God as Creator, God’s presence everywhere, Divine
freedom and Providence.

Week 3 Approaches to Theodicy

a) The Plotinian theodicy, named after Plotinus: Problem of evil, the One and the
Good
b) Stoic Influence to Plotinus’ Theodicy

c) The Augustinian theodicy (St. Augustine (354-430), The Problem of Evil,

freewill, and belief in God: St. Augustine’s theodicy is a collection of his
beliefs about good and evil.

d) The Irenaean theodicy, based on the thinking of St. Irenaeus (c.120/140-

c.200/203). Is God justified in the presence of evil?

e) Friedrich Schleiermacher: Eschatological Approach. “Original Perfection.”

f) John Hick’s theodicy: “soul making theodicy.” Contemporary Debates Page

270.
g) The Problem of Evil-Contemporary Readings in Philo of Religion: Is Evil
Evidence against Belief in God? (page3-7). God as the Explanation of the
universe (page 131).

Week 4 Leibnizian theodicy, Proofs of God’s existence according to G.W Leibniz, the
best of all possible worlds, the Problem of Evil, Natural (physical) evil,
and Man-made evil,
-The criticisms against Leibniz by Voltaire and others.

Week 5 Is God’s Existence the best explanation of the universe? (by Bruce
Reichenbach, in Contemporary Issues in Philosophy of Religion, p. 97-).

Week 6 Contemporary reflections on theology’s responsibility to theological challenges.

-The Problem of evil addressed by Peter Van Inwagen.

Term Paper: It is a refinement of your essays for the class. Please start with the rational of your
study. You will be submitting on weekly bases 250-words (minimum) composition. Your essay
is: A reflection on theodicy, revolving around the question? If God is omnipotent and
Omnibenevolent, why are there evil in the world? How do you reconcile human
predicaments, sufferings, sickness and pain, physical and moral evil, in the presence of
Divine Omnipotence? Do you think there is God? Where is God when it hurts? Does God
take responsibility for Covid-19 pandemic? Why does a perfectly, almighty, and all-knowing
God permit evil?
Note: You are free to explore your research using any philosophers under our discussion. Coin
your own title. But it must revolve around the above idea. Please use footnotes. No citation, no
acceptance. You may be required to submit other papers as the circumstance shall dictate.

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Academic Policies

Attendance. As an online course, the class can be held asynchronous or synchronous. There
would be scheduled online meeting using Google Meet.

Class Participation. To actively participate, you will need to read the assigned selections for the
week. For your assigned topic for reporting, each take turns in facilitating the assigned topic.

Class Activities. Our class activities include textual analyses, intellectual discourse, essay
writing, and research work.

Academic Honesty. Copying of ideas in substance, forms and words, constitutes plagiarism or
intellectual dishonesty. In order to avoid this, students are required to acknowledge sources from
which they get their ideas by giving the complete bibliographical entry. Any student turning in
the required papers and written exams copied from fellow students or other sources is deemed to
have committed intellectual dishonesty and is given a failing grade for that requirement for
the first offense and a failing grade for the course for the second offense.
Grading System. Class Participation 25%; Essays 40%; Research Paper 35%;

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Books

Drennen, D. A. Editor. A Modern Introduction to Metaphysics: Readings from Classical and

Contemporary Sources. USA: The Free Press, 1962.

Eliade, Mircea. The sacred and the profane. New York, New York: Harper & Brothers, 1957.

Harris, Harriet and Christopher Insole. Eds. Faith and Philosophical Analysis: The Impact of
Analytic Philosophy to Philosophy of Religion. U.S.A: Ashgate Publishing Company,
2005.

Hick, John. Evil and the God of Love. Revised Edition. San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1977.

Hirschberger, Johannes. The History of Philosophy Vol. 11. Translated by Rt. Rev. Anthony
N. Fuerst. U.S.A: The Bruce Publications, 1959.

James, William. The varieties of religious experience. New York, New York: Macmillan
Publishing, 1961.

Leibniz, Gottfried Wilhelm. Theodicy: Essays on the Goodness of God, the Freedom of Man,
and the Origin of Evil. London: Routledge & K., 1952.

________. Discourse on Metaphysics. Jonathan Bennett, 2004.

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M. deTorre, Joseph. Christian Philosophy. Third Edition. Manila: Sinag-Tala Pub, 1980.

Otto, Rudolf. The idea of the holy. New York, New York: Oxford University Press, 1970.

Peterson, Michael and Raymond J. Vanarragon. Contemporary debates in philosophy of religion.

Oxford, UK: Blackwell Publishing, 2004.

Periodicals

Hick, John. “An Irenaean Theodicy,” in Encountering Evil: Live Options in Theodicy. Ed.
Stephen Davies. KY/Westminster: John Knox Press, 2001), 38-72.

Ilievski, Viktor. “Stoic Influences on Plotinus’ Theodicy?” Elpis 2 (2018): 23-36.

Pourtless, John A. “Toward a Plotinian Solution to the Problem of Evil.” Aporia 8 (2008):1-20.

Electronic Sources

Bilimoria, Purushottama. “Toward an Indian Theodicy.” Published 20 October, 2013. In

https:/doi.org/10.1002/9781118608005.ch19

Hernandez, Jill Graper. “Theodicy.” Special Issue Editor. Religions 2018. Available in
https://www.mdpi.com/journal/religions/special_issues/Theodicy

Hick J. “The Irenaean Type of Theodicy in Schleiermacher.” In Evil and the God of Love.
Palgrave Macmillan, London. (1985). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-18048-6_10

Whitesell, Faris Daniel. “The Problem of Evil as Treated by St. Augustine” (1939). Master's
Theses. 423. https://ecommons.luc.edu/luc_theses/423