Theodicy and the Bible

Theodicy, in its most common form, is the attempt to answer the question of why a good God permits the manifestation of evil. Theodicy attempts to resolve the evidential problem of evil by reconciling the traditional divine characteristics of omnibenevolence and omnipotence, in either their absolute or relative form, with the occurrence of evil or suffering in the world. “Writings and discourses on theodicy by Jews, Greeks, Christians, and Eastern religions have graced our planet for thousands of years,” and ""debates about theodicy continue among believers and unbelievers alike"". Theodicy is an ""intensely urgent"" and ""constant concern"" of ""the entire Bible"". Relating theodicy and the Bible is crucial to understanding Abrahamic theodicy because the Bible ""has been, both in theory and in fact, the dominant influence upon ideas about God and evil in the Western world"". The Bible raises the issue of theodicy by its portrayals of God as inflicting evil and by its accounts of people who question God's goodness by their angry indictments. However, the Bible ""contains no comprehensive theodicy"".""The most common theodicy is the free will theodicy."" It lays the blame for all moral evil and some natural evil on humanity's misuse of its free will. This article shows that the free will theodicy interacts with the Bible at its core: what Jesus and Paul say about the freedom of the will and with what kind of freedom of the will God endowed humanity at the Creation.