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Theodicy (), in its most common form, attempts to answer the question why a good God permits the manifestation of evil. Theodicy addresses the evidential problem of evil by attempting “to make the existence of an All-knowing, All-powerful and All-good or omnibenevolent God consistent with the existence of evil” or suffering in the world.〔Philip A. Pecorino, ''An Introduction to Philosophy: An Online Textbook'' (2000), Chapter 3: Philosophy of Religion, Section 11: Problem of Evil, online at http://www.qcc.cuny.edu/SocialSciences/ppecorino/INTRO_TEXT/Chapter%203%20Religion/Problem_of_Evil.htm. Retrieved September 26, 2015.〕 Unlike a defence, which tries to demonstrate that God's existence is logically possible in the light of evil, a theodicy provides a framework which claims to make God's existence probable.〔A defence is “an effort to show that there is no formal contradiction between the existence of God . . . and the existence of evil.” Michael Rea and Louis B. Pojman, eds, ''Philosophy of Religion: An Anthology'' (Cengage Learning, 2015, 7th Edition), 229. 〕 The German mathematician and philosopher Gottfried Leibniz coined the term "theodicy" in 1710 in his work ''Théodicée'', though various responses to the problem of evil had been previously proposed. The British philosopher John Hick traced the history of moral theodicy in his 1966 work, ''Evil and the God of Love'', identifying three major traditions: # the Plotinian theodicy, named after Plotinus # the Augustinian theodicy, which Hick based on the writings of Augustine of Hippo # the Irenaean theodicy, which Hick developed, based on the thinking of St. Irenaeus Other philosophers have suggested that theodicy is a modern discipline because deities in the ancient world were often imperfect. German philosopher Max Weber (1864-1920) saw theodicy as a social problem, based on the human need to explain puzzling aspects of the world.〔Richard Swedberg, Ola Agevall, ''The Max Weber Dictionary: Key Words and Central Concepts'' (Stanford University Press, 2005), 274.〕 Sociologist Peter L. Berger (1929- ) argued that religion arose out of a need for social order, and an “implicit theodicy of all social order” developed to sustain it.〔Peter L. Berger, ''The Sacred Canopy: Elements of a Sociological Theory of Religion'' (Doubleday,1st ed, 1967), 55.〕 Following the Holocaust, a number of Jewish theologians developed a new response to the problem of evil, sometimes called anti-theodicy, which maintains that God cannot be meaningfully justified. As an alternative to theodicy, a defence has been proposed by the American philosopher Alvin Plantinga (1932- ), which is limited to showing the logical possibility of God's existence. Plantinga's version of the free-will defence argued that the coexistence of God and evil is not logically impossible, and that free will further explains the existence of evil without threatening the existence of God. Similar to a theodicy, a cosmodicy attempts to justify the fundamental goodness of the universe, and an anthropodicy attempts to justify the goodness of humanity. ==Definition and etymology== As defined by Alvin Plantinga, theodicy is the "answer to the question of why God permits evil".〔Plantinga, Alvin (1974). ''God, Freedom, and Evil'', William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, p. 10.〕 Theodicy is defined as a theological construct that attempts to vindicate God in response to the evidential problem of evil that militates against the existence of an omnipotent and omnibenevolent deity.〔http://www.thefreedictionary.com/theodicy and 〕 The word ''theodicy'' derives from the Greek words Θεός ''Τheos'' and δίκη ''dikē''. ''Theos'' is translated "God" and ''dikē'' can be translated as either "trial" or "judgement".〔("δίκη" ). ''A Greek–English Lexicon''.〕 Thus, theodicy literally means “justifying God”.〔''Encyclopædia Britannica Online'', s. v. ("theodicy" ), accessed October 20, 2013.〕 In the ''Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy'', Nick Trakakis proposed an additional three requirements which must be contained within a theodicy: *Common sense views of the world. *Widely held historical and scientific opinion. *Plausible moral principles. As a response to the problem of evil, a theodicy is distinct from a defence. A defence attempts to demonstrate that the occurrence of evil does not contradict God's existence, but it does not propose that rational beings are able to understand why God permits evil. A theodicy seeks to show that it is reasonable to believe in God despite evidence of evil in the world and offers a framework which can account for why evil exists.〔Bunnin & Tsui-James 2002, p. 481〕 A theodicy is often based on a prior natural theology, which attempts to prove the existence of God, and seeks to demonstrate that God's existence remains probable after the problem of evil is posed by giving a justification for God's permitting evil to happen.〔Geivett 1995, pp. 60-61〕 Defences propose solutions to the logical problem of evil, while theodicies attempt to answer the evidential problem.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「theodicy」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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