Theodicy and the problem of evil

Knowledge Deepening / Consolidation

The course is also offered to exchange programme students.

After the course students will be able to: a) classificate methodological modern bibliographic material. b) compare relationships of different philosophical views expressed on the understanding of a question that becomes a theological question c) distinguish special issues of specific Western theologians and be chosen with his thought, having elements with the principles of Orthodox theology.

The presence of evil in the world has raised skepticism in relation to its position in the world, and the "power" of God. At the sight or even more, in experiencing the evil, man can only bend and be concerned about this question, resulting in some theological traditions to be theodician. That is the main issue of this subject that always coexists with humanity and it targets to become the occasion for constructive dialogue and fruitful discussion. The theological thought of German literature about the presence of evil in our era that is marked by the atrocity of Auschwitz, is presented by the Western theologian Metz. His work is discussed within the framework of the course, as he is a theologian after Auschwitz who is struggling to find a way to talk about God to a suffering world. This search for God Himself through the issue of theodicy, becomes nevertheless an improper Utopia about God. Thus, the banishment of God from the world is not an evangelical issue. Knowing that "Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head"(Mt. 8, 20), we refer to the non-spatial (U-topian=Ου-τοπικό) and non-timing Son of God who comes in-space and in-time in order to save his creature, who, nevertheless, freely manages to exile themselves, due to the vast perichorisis of the Word, and experience the tragic ontological impasse that is caused by fragmentation. So man denies the Word the "bodily room for every detail of human life to fit, for the pain of this great detail to fit somewhere divinely." So every utopian effort either technical (technological), social or political one, is doomed to fail, since it idolizes the created, without hearing the in-spatial call of the uncreated Creator, who is calling for a meeting with him to the actual in-spatial utopia. This paradoxically universal utopia of the Word is the foundation that runs the context of the course, offering the ground for fruitful dialogue and salvific theology.

Theodicy, skepticism, salvific theology

03-03-2021