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Irenaean Theodicy

Irenaean Theodicy. Small Christian sect known as the Gnostics believed that all matter was inherently evil. How therefore could God have created it if he is perfectly good?. Irenaeus Solution. Genesis 1:26 – Let us make man in Our image, in Our likeness’.

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Irenaean Theodicy

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  1. Irenaean Theodicy • Small Christian sect known as the Gnostics believed that all matter was inherently evil. • How therefore could God have created it if he is perfectly good?

  2. Irenaeus Solution • Genesis 1:26 – Let us make man in Our image, in Our likeness’. • Humans are made in the image of God with the potential to be like God and the free will to make choices. • Having free will involves the chance of choosing evil

  3. Why couldn’t God make humans perfectly good in the first place? • Irenaeus gives the example of a mother not being able to give a baby solid food – they are given milk as they are immature. • Likewise humans could not be given full perfect goodness as they were spiritually immature and so are given free will to develop their own goodness. • The gift of moral perfection would not have meant anything to human beings if they did not learn to value it for themselves. • We are made in the image of God (with the potential for Good) and moving towards the likeness of God (becoming good). • We can do this by choosing to do the good. • God allows us free will as it is seen as more beneficial than making ready-made perfection.

  4. Links to Genesis • Irenaeus saw Genesis 3 as literally rather than symbolically true – it demonstrates that we (as humans) are not always ready to accept God’s goodness as we were spiritually and morally immature. Instead they were led astray by the devil. • Rather than choosing evil because of Original Sin humans sin because of a lack of moral wisdom and maturity.

  5. Explaining Natural Evil • Using an analogy of a potter and clay Irenaeus explains the presence of natural evil in the world as keeping us moist so that God can work us without becoming too rigid. • God’s ‘hands’ help mould us through the existence of natural evil – shaping us into the likeness of God if we are open to it. • It enables us to develop desirable moral qualities or virtue.

  6. The role of Jesus • ‘Recapitulation’ – to bring something back to the beginning. • Humans are being brought back into a relationship with God – this is made possible through Jesus as ‘the 2nd Adam’ • Jesus allows us to create a relationship with God that we were not ready to enter into to begin with. We can’t get back to God by our own means. • Jesus links God and humans as He is both divine and human.

  7. Natural Evil • Irenaeus states that we need to live in a world where the potential for moving towards the likeness of God exists. • Using the example of Jonah and the whale to do this • The experience of being eaten by the whale allowed Jonah to respond to his responsibilities and learn to accept God’s wishes. • Natural evil is therefore a means to an end of soul-making – suffering must be endured so that we can move closer to God and His likeness.

  8. Functioning as a theodicy • God is therefore justified in allowing evil because we move to the likeness of God. • Moral evil is the product of human sinfulness, a necessary consequence of free will • Natural evil is an instrument for God’s purpose. • Irenaeus believed this process of soul-making would be completed in heaven – those who accept God will be with and like him in heaven whilst those who reject him will be sent to damnation.

  9. The theodicy of Irenaeus cannot justify the existence of evil

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