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| author |
Michael Iwuchukwu
| | title |
A Christological Theodicy as a Christian Approach to the Problem of Evil
| | abstract |
The world has experienced innumerable calamities in history, too many to be counted.
We have heard of the Lisbon earthquake of 1755, the Spanish flu of 1918, the 1952
Kamchatka earthquake of Russia, and World Wars I and II. More recently, we have had
the coronavirus, which swept away millions of lives and shook the world to its very
foundations, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and the Turkish-Syrian earthquake. All
these calamities have taken innocent lives, rendered families homeless, changed the
course of people's lives and affected their faith and trust in God. At the heart of such
evil is the inner soul's yearning and the questions; where was God when all these things
were happening? If God is all good, loving, knowing, and powerful, why is there so
much evil in the world? The Christian is not an atheist, hence, there is already an
implicit assumption of faith in God. It is either the Christian does not see the problem
of evil as a problem or understands the problem of evil as just 'one of those things'.
After careful consideration of theodicies, we shall attempt to show how the Christian
can make sense of the problem of evil, both intellectually and existentially by arguing
for a Christological theodicy as a Christian approach to the problem of evil. While the
problem of evil as posed by atheists is the most formidable attack on God's existence,
it does not nullify the existence of God. A Christian is never confused about God's
attributes even in the face of evil. It shall be seen that a Christian makes sense of the
problem of evil through Christology. In other words, for the Christian, theodicy
presupposes Christology. Therefore, we are saying (as this thesis will argue) that if you
want to understand how the Christian makes sense of the problem of evil, look at the
person and life of Christ.
| | school |
The Theological School, Drew University
| | degree |
M.A. (2023)
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| advisor |
Minjung Noh
Jesse D. Mann
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| full text | MIwuchukwu.pdf - requires Drew uLogin |
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