1. John Hick's soul-making theodicy - 1 John Hick soul-making theodicy zHick first presented this theodicy in Evil and the God of Love in 1966 (revised in 1978) (New York: Harper & Row, 1966, rev. 1978). It is a modern classic. y1. Presuppositions God exists & is good and limitlessly powerful

2. John Hick's soul-making theodicy - 2 John Hick soul-making theodicy Humans are on a pilgrimage. What is the pilgrimage all about? What is the goal of the pilgrimage? (307, 310 2 nd ed) y2. Criticisms of Augustine’s theodicy The Golden Age & fall is a myth (304 2 nd ed) Fall of the angels is logically implausible

3. John Hick's soul-making theodicy - 3 John Hick soul-making theodicy Aside: Hick’s proposed interpretation of the meaning of the Garden fall story –Expresses the gap between what we are and what God intends us to be eventually (304 2 nd ed ). y3. Hick’s theodicy - Irenaean Inspired by Irenaeus’s (120-202 A.D.) use of the pilgrimage metaphor

4. John Hick's soul-making theodicy - 4 John Hick soul-making theodicy –Is consonant with evolution. å The 2 stages of evolution -- image & likeness (source is Genesis 1:26), bios & zoe å Contra Augustine, under the pilgrimage model, perfection lies in the future not in the past (Peterson, 2 nd ed., 3-7-308)

5. John Hick's soul-making theodicy - 5 John Hick soul-making theodicy yWhat kind of a world and what kind of human nature is required for such a pilgrimage? What are the conditions for the possibility of soul-making? xHumans must be free Requires a degree of autonomy Requires epistemic distance (without this humans would not be free)

6. John Hick's soul-making theodicy - 6 John Hick soul-making theodicy xNature also must have a degree of autonomy (perhaps more appropriately semi-autonomy) Counter-factual pictures of the world (309 2 nd ed ). The world must be a relatively stable & consistent place in order for humans to engage in the pilgrimage, in order to make moral choices & pursue knowledge. This explains non-moral evil

7. John Hick's soul-making theodicy - 7 John Hick soul-making theodicy y4. Cleaning up loose ends The intensity of evil Evil strikes indiscriminately (the story of Job) –Consider counter-factual situation (Peterson, 2 nd ed., 312) Soul-making is incomplete & even a failure for many (2 nd ed., 313)

8. John Hick's soul-making theodicy - 8 John Hick soul-making theodicy zCritical evaluation yWhat saves this theodicy from being a simple character-building theodicy (cf. football coach)? xHick’s theory applies not only to individual but to history of humankind, the evolutionary process

9. John Hick's soul-making theodicy - 9 John Hick soul-making theodicy xEvil exists not only for soul-making but also to make genuine freedom possible; the possibility of evil is a necessary condition for freedom, & freedom is a necessary condition for soul-making yDoes the theodicy require us to accept too many presuppositions? xResponse: This is the nature of grand systems.