The Augustinian and Iranaean Theodicies

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The Augustinian and Iranaean Theodicies

Classical theism relates to a personal God, and the explanation of the existence of evil through the indirect involvement of God is explained through Theodicies. Two of these are the Augustinian Theodicy and the Iranaean Theodicy.

The Augusinian Theodicy begins with the concept of 'past perfection', from which humanity fell, soon after creation. There are two strands to this argument; the philosophical which perceives evil as the absence of good -as God only created good- and the theological which examines the theory that God created mankind in freedom for extreme love. Evil arose in the philosophical strand as different levels of good existed, and mankind did not always choose the highest; resulting in a decline of this 'good'. The theological sees moral evil in the freedom of humans, which God punishes with natural evil , for instance earthquakes, disease etc. Thus proving tat God cannot be blamed for evil as He must allow it through freedom.

The Iranaean Theodicy however, looks to perfection in the future, and that the world created in chaos and imperfections will learn and move towards becoming children of God. I suggests that were created in