Non-Identity Theodicy
A Grace-Based Response to the Problem of Evil
Series: Oxford Theology and Religion Monographs;
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Product details:
- Publisher OUP Oxford
- Date of Publication 17 December 2020
- ISBN 9780198864226
- Binding Hardback
- No. of pages260 pages
- Size 242x160x17 mm
- Weight 538 g
- Language English 71
Categories
Short description:
This book develops Non-Identity Theodicy as an original response to the problem of evil. It constructs an ethical framework for theodicy by sketching four cases of human action where horrendous evils are either caused, permitted, or risked, either for pure benefit or for harm avoidance.
MoreLong description:
This is an open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International licence. It is free to read at Oxford Scholarship Online and offered as a free PDF download from OUP and selected open access locations.
Questions as personal as those about suffering require a very personal response. However, the most popular responses to "the problem of evil" revolve around abstract discussions of greater goods, maximization of value, and best possible worlds, depicting God as at best an impartial bureaucrat and at worst a utility fanatic, rather than as a loving parent concerned first and foremost for his children. Vince R. Vitale develops Non-Identity Theodicy as an original response to the problem of evil. He begins by recognizing that horrendous evils pose distinctive challenges for belief in God. The book constructs an ethical framework for theodicy by sketching four cases of human action where horrendous evils are either caused, permitted, or risked, either for pure benefit or for harm avoidance. This framework is then brought to bear on the project of theodicy. The initial conclusions drawn impugn the dominant structural approach of depicting God as causing or permitting horrors in individual lives for the sake of some merely pure benefit. This approach is insensitive to relevant asymmetries in the justificatory demands made by horrendous and non-horrendous evil and in the justificatory work done by averting harm and bestowing pure benefit. Vitale then critiques theodicies that depict God as permitting or risking horrors in order to avert greater harm. The second half of this book develops a theodicy that falls outside of the proposed taxonomy. Non-Identity Theodicy suggests that God allows evil because it is a necessary condition of creating individual people whom he desires to love. This approach to theodicy is unique because the justifying good recommended is neither harm-aversion nor pure benefit. It is not a good that betters the lives of individual human persons—for they would not exist otherwise, but it is the individual human persons themselves.
Critics of contemporary work on theodicy often complain that it fails to take deep and important issues of moral theory seriously. Vince Vitale's volume directly addresses this shortcoming, showing how careful attention to normative questions related to permitting or even causing evil reshapes how we should understand the problems of evil. Any philosopher or theologian working in this area will be forced to grapple with the arguments and challenges that Vitale lays out here.
Table of Contents:
Part I: A Framework for Theodicy
Introduction: The Problem of Horrendous Evils
The Ethics of Horror Inducement
Applying the Analogies: Causing for Pure Benefits
Applying the Analogies: Permission and Risk, Benefit Production, and Harm Avoidance
High Fall Theodicy
Part II: Beyond the Framework
Non-Identity Theodicy
The Good of Life: How Much Moral Difference Does Non-Identity Make?
Conclusion: Distinctive Features of Non-Identity Theodicy
Bibliography
