Theodicy

Gottfried Leibniz coined the term "theodicy" to justify God's existence in light of the apparent imperfections of the world.

In the philosophy of religion, a theodicy (/θˈɒdɪsi/; meaning 'vindication of God', from Ancient Greek θεός theos, "god" and δίκη dikē, "justice") is an argument that attempts to resolve the problem of evil that arises when all power and all goodness are simultaneously ascribed to God.[1]

Unlike a defence, which merely tries to demonstrate that the coexistence of God and evil is logically possible, a theodicy additionally provides a framework wherein God and evil's existence is considered plausible.[2] The German philosopher and mathematician Gottfried Leibniz coined the term "theodicy" in 1710 in his work Théodicée, though numerous attempts to resolve the problem of evil had previously been proposed.

Similar to a theodicy, a cosmodicy attempts to justify the fundamental goodness of the universe, and an anthropodicy attempts to justify the goodness of humanity.

  1. ^ Pecorino, Philip A. (2000). "Chapter 3: 'Philosophy of Religion', Section 11: Problem of Evil". An Introduction to Philosophy: An Online Textbook. Queensborough Community College. Archived from the original on 6 September 2023.
  2. ^ A defence is "an effort to show that there is no formal contradiction between the existence of God... and the existence of evil." Michael Rea and Louis B. Pojman, eds., Philosophy of Religion: An Anthology (Cengage Learning, 2015, 7th ed.), 229.