Abdullah HosseiniEskandian; gorbanali karimzadeh garamaleki; Aabas Aabaszadeh
Volume 12, Issue 1 , March 2024
Abstract
The problem of evil has caused theologians to have comprehensive and deep discussions about this issue in their works and to defend the belief in God. Saint Irenaeus, who played a significant role in Christian theology, tried to solve the problem of evil by proposing the idea of “cultivation of ...
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The problem of evil has caused theologians to have comprehensive and deep discussions about this issue in their works and to defend the belief in God. Saint Irenaeus, who played a significant role in Christian theology, tried to solve the problem of evil by proposing the idea of “cultivation of the soul” in his theodicy. From the point of view of Irenaeus, if evil is realized in the world of creation; it is sin and it is an essential affair in human essence that Adam fell into in the beginning of creation, and he disobeyed God's Command by abusing his will and authority, and this desire to sin is still prevalent among the human race. In this article, with a descriptive-analytical method and with a critical approach, an attempt is made to first investigate and analyze Irenaeus' theodicy and then criticize it according to the perspective of Immāmiyya Theology (Kālam). Despite the efforts that Saint Irenaeus had in solving the problem of evil, his theodicy is faced with challenges and deadlocks such as “relativism”, “pointless evil”, “epistemological distance” etc., which reduce its plausibility.
Abdullah HosseiniEskandian; gorbanali karimzadeh garamaleki; Abbas Abbaszadeh
Volume 11, Issue 2 , December 2023, , Pages 1-27
Abstract
The historical aspect of the problem of evil and the questions that it creates about the Existence of God and His Absolute Attributes, caused theodices and defenses to be explained in Christian theology in order to defend the doctrine of theism. Such an issue has caused wide-ranging debates about it ...
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The historical aspect of the problem of evil and the questions that it creates about the Existence of God and His Absolute Attributes, caused theodices and defenses to be explained in Christian theology in order to defend the doctrine of theism. Such an issue has caused wide-ranging debates about it from the first centuries of AD to the present day. Saint Augustine (354-430 AD), who is one of the most prominent Christian thinkers and had a great influence on Christian theology, made a tremendous effort in his works to explain the problem of evil and provide solutions to justify it. What is clear from Augustine's thoughts and opinions about evil is that he considers evil in a negative sense, not a positive one, and considers evil to be the misuse of things and objects that are intrinsically good. In this article, an attempt is made to investigate and analyze Augustine's theodicy and finally criticize it based on the principles of Shia theology.MethodologyIn this article, with a descriptive-analytical method and a critical approach, an attempt is made to investigate and analyze Augustine's theodicy and criticize it based on Shia theological principles.FindingsThe problem of evil was an influential and important issue in Augustine's life and was the main cause of some of the evolutions that occurred in his life. Therefore, he has made major and comprehensive discussions about the problem of evil in his works. Augustine's theodicy is influenced by the principles that Augustine believed in and solved the problem of evil based on them. These principles are influenced by Christian beliefs, and Augustine explained and solved the problem of evil based on them. From Augustine's point of view, God did not create and does not create any evil, and it is man who causes evil by misusing and abusing his will. Augustine has stated solutions such as “achieving good through evil”, “few evil and abundance of good”, “necessity of the evil for the system of creation” and “evil is relative” to justify the problem of evil (Copleston, 2009, vol. 2: p.107). The theodicy of Augustine sees God's relationship with creatures and the universe in the form of impersonal relationships (Sefidkhosh and Moradi, 2015: p. 77). Therefore, man was created as a part of a hierarchy of forms of existence that would be incomplete without Him, and man has absolute reliance on the Absolute Goodness of God and His Grace. According to the theodicy of Augustine, it is basically impossible to get rid of evil and obtain good affairs without the help of the Divine Will and the granting of grace from Him. Augustine considers evil to be non-existent and moral evil also comes from human will and action that abuses his will.Discussion and ConclusionThe principle of defending the existence of God and His Absolute Attributes, defending the best system of creation, free will, fall of man, original sin and Divine Grace are among the principles based on which Saint Augustine explained and solved the problem of evil. Augustine believes in his theodicy that everything that is and exists is good and negation is evil because it does not benefit from existence. The theodicy of Augustine sees God's relationship with creatures and the universe in the form of impersonal relationships (Augustine, 2006: p.103). Augustine considers evil to be not essential and inherent, but an accident affair that lacks essence and substance and means the lack of perfection in an object. He believes that the minimal existence of evil is accepted and its negation is expressed by considering its minimal aspect (Augustine, 2012: p. 120). Augustine considers evil to be non-existent, which is why it does not deserve the existence of a cause; because the first and most important condition for the existence of an object is to have a cause (Brown, 2000: p.73). According to Augustine, any object or phenomenon that has stages of perfection and is useful is good, and if an object lacks stages of perfection, it cannot be called good anymore, but it is an evil that has no cause, and since it has no cause, it does not exist, and as a result, it is a non-existent affair. Augustine divides evil into moral and natural evil, and considers moral evil as human sin and natural evil as the punishment that a person must taste natural evil because of committing moral evil (De Paulo, 2006: p.34). Finally, it should be acknowledged that Augustine in his theodicy, despite the many efforts he had in solving the problem of evil, but this theodicy based on the approach of Shia theology faces criticisms such as “the lack of effect of original sin in committing moral evil”, “incorrect explanation of the relationship between evil and the material world”, “incorrect explanation of the agent of the realization of natural evil” and etc., which makes the acceptance and acceptability of his theodicy difficult.
Tahereh Baghestani; Hadi Vakili; Naeme poormohammadi; Hosein Moosavi
Volume 11, Issue 1 , June 2022, , Pages 33-52
Abstract
The problem of evil has occupied the human mind for a long time and thinkers have tried to answer it in many different ways. These ways are sometimes proposed to prevent the feeling of atheism or despair towards the creator of the universe and sometimes to reduce suffering or anxiety in life. In the ...
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The problem of evil has occupied the human mind for a long time and thinkers have tried to answer it in many different ways. These ways are sometimes proposed to prevent the feeling of atheism or despair towards the creator of the universe and sometimes to reduce suffering or anxiety in life. In the tradition of Islamic mysticism, Ibn َArabi, who is the founder of the Akbari school, has provided a solution in this field based on his own mystical principles, namely, Nizam Ahsan, the system of divine names and attributes, fixed entities, and the personal unity of existence. In this article, we are trying to discover and reconstruct Ibn Arabi's answer in this context about the problem of evil based on the existential interpretation, based on these mystical foundations and with regard to contemporary approaches in the philosophy of religion. Based on this solution, from Ibn Arabi's point of view, evil is a relative matter and bound to the determinations and capabilities of the existing phenomena, and since according to the names of divine goodness, the whole system is good, and according to the theory of personal unity of existence, the truth of existence is unique to God. Giving meaning and consolation becomes possible with the presence of God.
Abouzar nourozi; reza berenjkar
Volume 3, Issue 2 , April 2015, , Pages 89-109
Abstract
The problem of evil is one of the most important and well-known theological and philosophical issues which most of religions have dealt with it and philosophers of religions have addressed this issue through a new look. This article through propositional analysis, reviews the Mulla Sadra and Leibniz's ...
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The problem of evil is one of the most important and well-known theological and philosophical issues which most of religions have dealt with it and philosophers of religions have addressed this issue through a new look. This article through propositional analysis, reviews the Mulla Sadra and Leibniz's views on the problem. Due to circumstances of time, Mulla Sadra expressed his views on the issue with a traditional approach, but Leibniz is discussed it with traditional and also new approaches. The Foundations of Sadra and Leibniz and their original solutions to the problem are the same. Among the solutions that these two philosophers have addressed, the old and controversial solution, that evil is absence and really doesn’t exist, is shared. In general, their solutions do not have a basic coherency, because in one solution they deny the existence of evil, while the precondition of their other solutions is the existence of evil.
zeinab zargooshi,; abdolrasul kashfi,
Volume 2, Issue 2 , January 2014, , Pages 109-129
Abstract
the problem of evil According to which the existence of evils are in apparent contradiction with three divine attributes namely omniscience, omnipotence and omnibenevolence is one of the major issues in philosophy of religion which has been studied by many scholars. . john Feinberg does not consider ...
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the problem of evil According to which the existence of evils are in apparent contradiction with three divine attributes namely omniscience, omnipotence and omnibenevolence is one of the major issues in philosophy of religion which has been studied by many scholars. . john Feinberg does not consider the problem of evil in one dimensin only, but he divides the evil into two philosophical/theological and religious problems and also holds that philosophical/theological problem has two forms: the logical and the evidential. He responses to the moral problem of evil according to his views about free will and ethical theories .Feinberg deals with the natural problem of evil according to the theory of fall and natural order. He responses to the evidential problem with respect to the nature of inductive and probability arguments and also the limits of human knowledge. Allame tabatabaei responses to the problem of evil as privation of good into the best world. In this paper will examine the similarities and differences between the two thinkers.
