Meaning of Theodicy (What it is, Concept and Definition)

What is Theodicy:

Theodicy is a part of the philosophy that is responsible for explaining and demonstrating, in a rational way, the omnipotence of God, his attributes and the existence of evil.

The word theodicy comes from the Greek theoswhich means ‘God’ and díkē which is translated as ‘justice’, which is why theodicy is understood as the “justification of God.”

It should be noted that theodicy is part of natural theology, which is one that covers more general aspects such as discovering the evidence of God without relying on supernatural facts.

Theodicy and Leibniz

The term theodicy was created in the 17th century and was first used by the German philosopher Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz in his book Theodicy Essay. About the goodness of God, the freedom of man and the origin of evilalso know as Theodicy.

However, some time later the French philosopher Voltaire ironized Leibniz’s theodicy with the publication of his satirical novel Naive.

Now, in this theodicy Leibniz presented his rational study of God, the freedom of man and the existence of evil. However, Saint Augustine already mentioned theodicy long before Leibniz, who combined a series of philosophical and religious knowledge in order to justify both the existence of God and evil.

Likewise, Leibniz was concerned with clarifying in his book the existing contradictions about the relationships between spiritual beliefs about God and rational thoughts about nature and the injustices experienced by human beings.

That is, theodicy collects and tries to answer all those doubts that are related to faith, reason, the spiritual, the natural, good and evil, considering, especially, that everything was created through the goodness of God.

Hence, evil even justifies the existence of God in order to achieve the freedom of man. Therefore, Leibniz certifies that God created the best possible world.

See also Scholasticism.