Wright on Theodicy

Abstract

In Evil and the Justice of God, N. T. Wright suggests that attempting to solve the philosophical problem of evil is an immature response to the existence of evil—one that belittles the real problem, which is just that evil is bad and needs to be dealt with. If he is correct, then the vast majority of work on the problem of evil in the analytic philosophical tradition has been worthless at best, and possibly even pernicious (by virtue of trivializing a serious theological issue). This chapter identifies a kernel of truth in Wright’s objection to philosophical attempts to solve the problem of evil, and goes on to argue that some such attempts avoid Wright’s objection.