THEODICY: A KUHNIAN INTERVENTION

Abstract

Theodicy is the justification of God in spite of the preponderant magnitude of evil which characterizes our world. It is a defence of Christian orthodoxy against presumed assaults involving suffering and evil (Sleigh 481). In some other interpretations, it is a theistic response to the question as to whether theism is justified within our understanding of evil and suffering in the world (Stone 326). For Alvin Plantinga, theodicy is a theological construct which attempts to vindicate God in spite of the evidential and existential problem of evil that seems inconsistent with God's omnipotence, omniscience and omni-benevolence. In literature, it is mostly believed that the idea of a God defined in terms of properties such as omnibenevolence, omniscience, and omnipotence is inconceivable in contrast with an idea of a world substantially marked by evil.This is the bane of every exercise which attempts to justify God within the enormous degree of sufferings and pains experienced in our world. This seems to be the concerns of the discourse of theodicy.