Reconsidering the Problem of Evil : Contemporary Philosophy and Antitheodicy(<Special Issue>Religion and Ethics)

Abstract

In his article "Evil and Omnipotence" (1955), J.L. Mackie attempted to refute theistic belief by arguing that the existence of evil is inconsistent with the existence of a wholly good and omnipotent God. It is true that the "free will defense," offered by A. Plantinga, contributed greatly to the logical solution of such a problem of evil, but the important question to be discussed is whether we can accept this kind of solution at the emotional level. The purpose of this paper is to deal with what we might call the emotive problem of evil through the analysis of John K. Roth's "theodicy of protest," which is deeply influenced by Jewish thinking after the Holocaust. It cannot be emphasized too strongly that Roth's theodicy paid attention to the existence of the unjustifiable suffering of victims in history. In my view, this theodicy, which Roth himself identifies with antitheodicy, has much in common with the thought of some Jewish philosophers like Theodor W. Adorno and Emmanuel Levinas. It is from that point of view that I shall show the philosophical, not theological, significance of Roth's (anti) theodicy, and then consider the relationship between Roth's position and Ivan Karamazov's "rebellion."