Providence and the Problem of Evil

278 Pages·1998·2.2 MB·English

by  Richard Swinburne

Providence and the Problem of Evil
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Providence and the Problem of Evil
Richard Swinburne
CLARENDON PRESS · OXFORD
1998
GreatClarendonStreet,OxfordOX26DP
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Swinburne,Richard.
Providenceandtheproblemofevil/ RichardSwinburne.
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
1.ProvidenceandgovernmentofGod2. Goodandevil.
3.Theodicy.I.Title.
BT135.S951998 231′.8—dc2198–6781
ISBN0–19–823799–5
ISBN0–19–823798–7(Pbk)
Acknowledgements
I have discussed the topic of this book in many lectures and classes in many universitiesover many years, and I am
verygratefultoallthosewhosecommentshaveforcedmetoabandoncertainlinesofargumentandencouragedmeto
developothers.IhavegivenseveralgraduateclassesatOxfordinwhichIhaveusedearlier versionsofallthismaterial;
and most recently I have had the benefit of reactions to it of a graduate class at St Louis University. I am especially
grateful to Eleonore Stump, to Sarah Coakley, and to two referees for the Oxford University Press, both for detailed
criticisms and for very general reactions to some of my moral assumptions. I owe very considerable thanks also to
varioussecretarieswhohavetypedandretypedversionsofthisbookovertheyears,andamongthemespeciallytoMrs
Fiona Snyckers and Mrs Rosemary Clayton.
Some of my material has been published in various earlier forms. Two and a half chapters of The Existence of God
(Clarendon Press, 1979; rev. edn. 1991) were concerned with theodicy, and I am grateful to the Oxford University
Press for permission to reuse some of that (in a much changed form). I am grateful to the editors and publishers of
four more recent papers for permission to reprint material which has some recognizable connection with chapters of
this book: ‘Knowledge from Experience and the Problem of Evil’, in W. J. Abraham and S. Holtzer (eds.), The
Rationality of ReligiousBelief (Clarendon Press, 1987); ‘Does Theism Need a Theodicy?’, Canadian Journal of Philosophy, 18
(1988), 287–312; ‘Theodicy, our Well-Being, and God's Rights’, International Journal for the Philosophy of Religion(Kluwer
Academic Publishers), 38 (1995), 77–93; and ‘Some Major Strands of Theodicy’, in D. Howard-Snyder (ed.), The
Evidential Argument from Evil (Indiana University Press, 1996).
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Contents
Introduction 1
Part I. THE PROBLEM OF EVIL
1. The Need for Theodicy 9
2. Theodicy in Christian Tradition 36
Part II. THE GOOD GOALS OF CREATION
3. Beauty 55
4. Thought and Feeling 60
5. Action 88
6. Worship 117
Part III. THE NECESSARY EVILS
7. The Fact of Moral Evil; and Free Will 131
8. The Range of Moral Evil; and Responsibility 144
9. Natural Evil and the Scope for Response 166
10. Natural Evil and the Possibility of Knowledge 182
11. The Evils of Sin and Agnosticism 199
Conclusion to Part III 223
Part IV. COMPLETING THE THEODICY
12. God's Right 229
13. Weighing Good against Bad 243
Additional Notes 259
Index 265
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Introduction
TheUniversewithitsbillionsofgalaxies, eachwithbillionsofstars, manyofthemprobablyorbitedbythesmallerand
colderbodieswhichwecall‘planets’,hasbeenexpandingrapidlyfor thelastfifteenbillionyears.The‘BigBang’,which
began this period of the Universe's history, may have been the beginning of the Universe itself, or the Universe may
have had an earlier history—possibly one without beginning. For the last three billion or so years there have been
animals on the planet Earth, and more recently humans. Maybe there are animate beings on other planets too, but of
them we have as yet no knowledge. The traditional theist, who believes that there is a God who is all-powerful and
perfectly good, believes that God created and sustains all this, for supremely good purposes. Some of these good
purposes, he believes, have already been realized or are now being realized. But most traditional theists, and among
them Christian theists, believe that other good purposes are yet to be realized in this Universe or in another one; and
that what is happening in theUniversenow is a necessary step towards therealizationof these other purposes. These
goodpurposesincludetheperfectingofthisUniverseinallitsaspectsandtheworshipofGodinthelifeofHeavenby
those humans who have freelychosen that sort of life.The worldis thus, according to Christian theism, the objectof
God's providential care—he foresees and meets the needs of his creatures. Some of the good purposes of God
concern allcreatures or allhumans, and these are theconcern ofwhat is called his general providence; others concern
particular individuals—he has a certain good purpose for me and anotherone for you—and these are the concern of
what is called his special providence.
Such is the Christian doctrine (and that of many other forms of theism). But if God has these supremely good
purposes for the future, why the delay? Why cannot we have their benefits now? And notoriously the world contains
much suffering and other evilwhichit wouldseem thatGod would(invirtue of his perfectgoodness) havesoughtto
prevent, and (in virtue of being all-powerful)