John Hick - The Problem of Evil
Theists who believe in God and avoid the problem of evil delude themselves. If there is a God, evil is God’s hardest problem to explain. If there is no God, evil is the easiest evidence supporting a lack of God. Theologians have no tougher task than explaining evil’s enormity. They have devised clever, even profound, explanations and justifications. Do they pass the smell test?
John Harwood Hick was an English philosopher of religion and theologian, who taught in the United States for the larger part of his career. In philosophical theology, he made contributions in the areas of theodicy, eschatology, and Christology, and in the philosophy of religion he contributed to the areas of epistemology of religion and religious pluralism.
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Σύμφωνα με τον Τζον Χικ, ο χριστιανικός στοχασμός έχει προσφέρει δύο απαντήσεις στο πρόβλημα του κακού: την πρωτολογική θεοδικία (θεοδικία της ελεύθερης βούλησης) του Αυγουστίνου Ιππώνος και την εσχατολογική ή σωτηριολογική θεοδικία (ψυχοποιητική/ψυχοπλαστική θεοδικία) του Ειρηναίου Λουγδούνου.