Theodicy and the Bible

rdf:langString Theodicy and the Bible

rdf:langString Relating theodicy and the Bible is crucial to understanding Abrahamic theodicy because the Bible "has been, both in theory and in fact, the dominant influence upon ideas about God and evil in the Western world". Theodicy, in its most common form, is the attempt to answer the question of why a good God permits the manifestation of evil. Theodicy attempts to resolve the evidential problem of evil by reconciling the traditional divine characteristics of omnibenevolence and omnipotence, in either their absolute or relative form, with the occurrence of evil or suffering in the world. Theodicy is an "intensely urgent" and "constant concern" of "the entire Bible". The Bible raises the issue of theodicy by its portrayals of God as inflicting evil and by its accounts of people who question God's goodness by their angry indictments. However, the Bible "contains no comprehensive theodicy". The most common theodicy is free will theodicy, which lays the blame for all moral evil and some natural evil on humanity's misuse of its free will.