Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A vindication of God's goodness and justice in the face of the existence of evil.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. An exposition of the theory of divine Providence with a view to the vindication of the attributes, particularly of the holiness and justice, of God, in establishing the present order of things, in which evil, moral as well as physical, largely exists. The word in this sense was used by Leibnitz in a series of essays, in which he maintained that metaphysical evil is necessary to moral beings, that physical evil is a means of a greater good, and that moral evil was permitted by God as necessary to the best possible world, as a set-off to moral good, which it increases by contrast.
Wiktionary
- n. A justification of a deity, or the attributes of a deity, especially in regard to the existence of evil and suffering in the world; a work or discourse justifying the ways of God.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A vindication of the justice of God in ordaining or permitting natural and moral evil.
- n. That department of philosophy which treats of the being, perfections, and government of God, and the immortality of the soul.
WordNet 3.0
- n. the branch of theology that defends God's goodness and justice in the face of the existence of evil
Etymologies
- From the French théodicée, from the Ancient Greek θεός (theos, "god") + δίκη (dikē, "justice"). (Wiktionary)
- After Essai de théodicée, a work by Baron Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz : Greek theo-, theo- + Greek dikē, order, right. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“I've always felt that one of his most important inquiries, into theodicy is revealing about the issues here, if one expands the term theodicy beyond the religious, and considers whether any contingent event such as the puritans' otherwise unexplainable good fortune can prompt a challenge of meaning.”
“Point 7, a passing reference to theodicy, is not specific to ID.”
“This question of suffering -- which theologians refer to as "theodicy" -- has, since the emergence of human consciousness, prompted many different theories and possible answers.”
“The best work on Darwin's theodicy is Cornelius G. Hunter's "Darwin's God".”
“The song grapples with a classic, enduring theological knot sometimes referred to as theodicy: If God is benevolent and all-powerful, why does evil exist?”
The Huffington Post: Michael Gilmour: Ozzy Osbourne And The Apocalypse
“There is, in fact, a theological field of inquiry called "theodicy", which investigates the basic question: If God is all powerful (omnipotent), all knowing (omniscient), and all-good, (omnibenevolent) how can evil and injustice exist?”
The Huffington Post: Rabbi Alan Lurie: How Could God Have Allowed the Holocaust?
“My points were simply pointing out the huge problem of evil/suffering, which there is a whole field called theodicy that tries to hand-wave away.”
Honoring religion and science | RELIGION Blog | dallasnews.com
“The problem relating to the question about divinity being unambiguously good is traditionally called the theodicy problem, and it raises the question about the relationship between the general religious assumption that the world has been created by a transcendent power and the specific religions.”
The Idea of Design in Nature: Science or Phenomenology? By Jakob Wolf
“I haven't the time or inclination to expound here, but I'll offer an educated guess that Maher never thoroughly studied the branch of theology called theodicy, else he wouldn't adopt such a position about the "apparent" disregard of God for others.”
Bill Maher's Religulous Documentary is Evidently 'Brilliant' « FirstShowing.net
“This orgie of philosophic thought, identifying error with existence itself, and developing the axiom of Proudhon -- "Evil is God," will bring back the mass of mankind to the Christian theodicy, which is neither optimist nor pessimist, but simply declares that the felicity which”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘theodicy’.
-
phrontistery-t
from phrontistery.info
tabacosis, tabanid, tabaret, tabati?re, tabby, tabefaction, tabellary, tabellion, tabernacle, tabernacular, tabescent, tabific and 930 more...
-
Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11250 more...
-
Postscripture ✞
Terms associated with the Christianity, The Bible, etc. I have a related, but more narrow list called Imbible Code.
A related list is Words Associated With Jesus.apostole, pharaoh, sodom, babel, sabbath, baptize, cherub, elohim, lapsarian, crucifixion, nephilim, hosanna and 195 more...
-
briwref's list
defalcation, macerate, beldam, nescience, ochlocracy, bibelot, estivate, spatulated, introversive, mastoidal, belletristic, objurgation and 108 more...
-
Leibniz
Anything to do with Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz.
Leibniz, Gottfried Wilhelm..., monad, stepped reckoner, Leibniz wheel, Stepped Reckoner, calculus, li, pandochal lens, cata-dioptric tube, Theodicy, theodicy and 29 more...
-
Letter to a Christian Nation
Vocab. from "Letter to a Christian Nation" by Sam Harris
impart, pretension, divisive, retrograde, bellicose, languish, parse, corroborate, anesthetize, graven, iota, apostate and 107 more...
-
list be blissful (and blessful) list
rio arriba, burnish, gloze, glint, politure, supercalender, tincture, silverture, mottle, postil, beatific, seraphic and 1 more...
-
work these into conversation
Challenge!
legerdemain, polysemic, rupestrian, callipygian, oscitancy, numen, lucubration, asperity, amalgam, apposite, wastrel, eleemosynary and 208 more...
-
Mat8iou's interesting words
Words I've come across & want to remember.
bloviation, elginism, panegyric, infandous, boke, pangram, quine, pareto principle, panopticon, snib, escutcheon, bokeh and 129 more...
-
addendumb's Words
fey, cockshut, redact, beatific, melange, arcanum, rarefied, dissemble, capitulation, detritus, ennui, anodyne and 381 more...
-
Useful
parkour, diegetic, callipygian, dasypygal, hypnagogic, hypnopompic, antejentacular, postprandial, perspicuity, perspicacity, föhn, traceur and 115 more...
-
bintalshamsa's list
My Favorite Words
weltschmerz, perspicacity, idée fixe, invigilator, salubrious, tchotchke, ex nihilo, invidious, malapropism, naïve, sardonic, elide and 1459 more...
-
useful ones
ersatz, pastiche, amalgam, polemic, implacable, inchoate, tautology, grum, nonpareil, gracile, supernal, auspicious and 88 more...
-
some words
phatic, macerate, amanuenses, theophagy, seraglio, gloaming, geophagy, metaphone, anastrophe, neologism, tetragrammaton, bête noire and 568 more...
-
tez's Words
tain, curlicue, eidolon, exoteric, puissant, ragamuffin, insouciant, yarrow, taciturn, mundane, vomitorium, tenebre and 140 more...
-
looked up
Words I've come across while reading and looked up in the dictionary.
deesis, pendentive, revetment, aedicule, stemma, patera, ephod, entrepot, corbel, exedra, volute, archivolt and 1408 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for theodicy.
yarb A long poem by Homer. Oct 23, 2007