Introduction

I. NAME

The term theodicy (from the Greek theos “God” and dike “right; custom; usage; manner”) was coined by the famous philosopher and mathematician Gottfried Wilhelm Leibnitz (1646-1716) who used it in his Essays on Theodicy to express the justice or the righteous manner of God’s dealings with mankind, which he defended against those who felt that the evils of life are an argument for atheism. The term theodicy thus literally means “God’s justice” or “God’s righteous way.” But this original meaning was quickly expanded to include not only the beneficent providence of God, but the whole of God,— nature, attributes, and operations. In a word, theodicy became a synonym for natural theology. Theology had long been distinguished as (a) natural theology which is a part of philosophy, and which is the science of God as knowable by unaided human reason; and (b) supernatural theology or divine theology which is the science of God as manifested by Divine Revelation. The term theodicy came in handily to replace the more cumbrous natural theology (although it is not an accurate name for that science) and to allow the simple name theology to be used for the supernatural science. Convenience and long usage have established the term theodicy in its present meaning. Theodicy means natural theology. And natural theology means the philosophical science which sets forth all that human reason can discover by its unaided efforts about God, His existence, His nature, His attributes, and His operations. The term theology, by the way, comes from the Greek theos “God,” and logos “science,” and literally means the science of God.

2. Definition

Theodicy is the philosophical science of God. a) Theodicy is a science. The term science (from Latin scire “to know”) means not only knowledge, but a special kind of knowledge. It means knowledge that is evidenced and therefore certain. And the evidence or proof of any point of knowledge lies in the fact that we recognize its reasons or its causes or both. Therefore science has often been defined as “knowledge through causes or reasons.” Such is the fundamental meaning of the term science without the article. Now, a science is any defined branch of knowledge which sets forth the truths that belong to its domain in a clear and orderly fashion and with all possible completeness, and which adds to these truths the reasons (or causes) which make the truths know able with certitude to the thinking mind. Theodicy meets the requirements here mentioned; it sets forth the truths that the unaided human mind can discover about God; it presents these truths in a manner that is clear, orderly, logical, and complete; it offers, at every step of its development, the evidence, the proofs, which the mind requires to make it give its full and unwavering assent to the doctrines proposed. Therefore, theodicy is justly called a science. b) Theodicy is a philosophical science. A philosophical science is one of the branches of philosophy. Such a science has two distinctive features. First of all, it is a human science, that is, it is built up by reason unenlightened by Revelation. Thus it is distinguished from the divine science of theology. Among human sciences, a philosophical science is distinguished as one that seeks the very last discoverable causes and reasons for its data; its quest js an ultimate investigation ; it is not content with proximate causes and reasons such as the other human sciences find adequate for their respective purposes. Every science asks and answers the questions “Why?” and “How do we know that ?”; a philosophical science keeps on asking “Why?” and “How?” until it has pushed back the inquiry as far as it is humanly possible to go with it. A philosophical science deals with knowledge that is root-deep, and it digs out the deepest roots. These, then, are the two marks of a philosophical science: it is a human science, and it is an ultimate science. Theodicy has these two marks, and is, in consequence, a philosophical science. c) Theodicy is the science of God, The phrase “of God” means, as is evident, “about God.” The preposition “of” is not possessive, but objective. It does not indicate the knowledge that belongs to God, but the knowledge which man can gain about God in Himself and in all the phases under which He is viewed by the limited human mind. z. OBJECT

The object of a science is its scope, its field of investigation, its subject-matter. Further, it is the special way in which it does its work in its field, or it is the special purpose which guides it in its work. Thus the object of any science is twofold. The subject-matter, the field of inquiry, is the material object of the science. The special way, or purpose, or end-in-view, which a science has in dealing with its subject-matter or material object is the formal object of that science. Many sciences may have the same material object, for many more or less independent inquiries may be prosecuted in the same general field. But each science has its own distinct and distinctive formal object which it shares completely with no other science. That is why this object is called formal; it gives formal character to the science; it makes the science just what it is formally or as such. To illustrate all this. Many sciences deal with the earth under one aspect or another. Such, for example, are geology, geodisy, geography, geonomy, geogony, and even geometry. All these sciences study the earth; they have therefore the same material object. But no two of these sciences study the earth in the same special way or with the same special purpose. Geology studies the earth in its rock formations; geodisy studies the earth in its contours; geography studies the earth in its natural or artificial partitions; geonomy studies the earth as subject to certain physical laws; geogeny studies the earth to discover its origins; geometry in its first form was a study of the earth in its mensurable bulk and its mensurable movements. Thus, while all these sciences have the same material object, each of them has its own formal object. If two sciences were to have the one identical formal object, they would not really be two sciences at all, but one science. It is manifest that a science is formally constituted in its special character by its formal object; it is equally manifest that a science is distinguished from all other sciences by its formal object. Theodicy studies God. God is, therefore, the material object of this science. But theology (the divine science) also studies God as its material object. The distinction between theodicy and theology lies in their respective formal objects. For theodicy studies God by the unaided light of reason, and theology studies God by the light of reason aided by Revelation.

The material object of theodicy is God. The formal object of theodicy is God as knowable by unaided human reason.

4. Importance

Regarded absolutely, or in itself and independently of its relationships with other sciences, theodicy is far and away the most important of all human sciences. For it deals with the most sublime subject that can engage the mind of man. And when theodicy is viewed in its relations to other sciences, it still maintains its place of preeminence. For every other science rests ultimately upon certain assumptions which theodicy does not assume, but proves; every other science is based upon notions of primal causality, of an ordered universe (and hence an Orderer), of an arrangement and balance, of a consistency and constancy in nature. Let scientists ignore this fact as they may, it remains a fact beyond dispute. St. Augustine was voicing no pious sentiment but expressing the clearest of reasoned conclusions when he said that those who try to philosophize, or to play the scientist, while ignoring or denying God, only succeed in entangling themselves in a net of contradictions. It is manifest, therefore, that theodicy, in view of its supreme object and of its fundamental relations to other sciences, is a most important study. Not only is theodicy the most important of philo sophical sciences in its object and in its relationships with other sciences; it is important because it meets the highest and strongest tendencies of the human mind; because its certain conclusions are a satisfaction to the noblest emotional yearnings; because it gives meaning to the bewildering universe of sentient experience; because it makes intelligible the resistless human bent and bias for moral conduct. Theodicy is the best that the human mind can do for man, for that strange being whose life is a blending of the most curious and even opposite elements; for man, the creature of penetrating reason and unseeing passion; for man, who moves among the hard and gross things of sense with the deepest spiritual longings in his soul; for man, whose tendency to be wilful and perverse is inextricably bound up with an insatiable appetite for what is moral and good. So great is the essential service of theodicy that those who scorn its ministry and ignore God who is its object are compelled by their human constitution to make up a theodicy of their own, a theodicy which suffers only from the fact that it is wholly false. It is of first importance, then, that we bring reason to a calm, clear, penetrating view of facts, and follow its course through all complexities to inevitable conclusions about the First Reality. It is important that we build up the true theodicy of which our mind and our whole being have need. Man is, of course, a philosopher by nature. The most uncultured and untrained has some sort of natural theology at the back of his view of all things. But for persons of education such a vague theodicy will not suffice, even if it happens to be a true theodicy as far as it goes. We need the discipline of philosophical theodicy for our minds, and we need its conclusions for our lives. Not that it is all-sufficing. It is the best that natural powers can do for us, but man needs more than nature; man needs supernature. Nor, for us who have the divine gift of faith, is theodicy meant to supplant faith or to rationalize it into a cold and mathematical formula. Theodicy supplements faith, rendering service by showing how reasonable and even inescapable are the first truths of faith; and it equips us for the task of showing others, who have not the faith, the first inviting reaches of the straight path that leads through reason to certainty and security of life in the one Institution on earth where men can really be at home.

5. Division

Three questions define the plan we are to follow in this present study. They are the following: 1. Is there a God? 2. What is God? 3. What does God do? The first question inquires about the existence of God; the second, about His nature; the third, about His operations. These three topics,—the existence, the nature, and the operations of God,—will be discussed in three Books with Chapters as follows:

Book First

Book Second

The Existence of God Chap. I. God’s Existence a Demonstrable Truth Chap. II. Demonstration of the Existence of God

The Nature of God Chap. I. The Essence of God

Chap. II. The Attributes of God

Book Third

The Operations of God Chap. I. The Immanent Operations of God Chap. II. The Transient Operations of God