Read more
This book develops Non-Identity Theodicy as an original response to the problem of evil. It constructs an ethical framework for theodicy by sketching four cases of human action where horrendous evils are either caused, permitted, or risked, either for pure benefit or for harm avoidance.
List of contents
- Part I: A Framework for Theodicy
- 1: Introduction: The Problem of Horrendous Evils
- 2: The Ethics of Horror Inducement
- 3: Applying the Analogies: Causing for Pure Benefits
- 4: Applying the Analogies: Permission and Risk, Benefit Production, and Harm Avoidance
- 5: High Fall Theodicy
- Part II: Beyond the Framework
- 6: Non-Identity Theodicy
- 7: The Good of Life: How Much Moral Difference Does Non-Identity Make?
- 8: Conclusion: Distinctive Features of Non-Identity Theodicy
- Bibliography
About the author
Vince R. Vitale is a co-founder, with his wife Jo, of Kardiaa- ministry focused on reconciliation to God, with others, and within the self. He also serves as Faculty Scholar at CEO Forum. Vitale was educated at Princeton University and the University of Oxford and did his doctoral research under the supervision of philosophers Marilyn McCord Adams and Robert Merrihew Adams. Before founding Kardia, Vitale was a faculty member briefly at Princeton and for several years at Oxford.
Summary
This book develops Non-Identity Theodicy as an original response to the problem of evil. It constructs an ethical framework for theodicy by sketching four cases of human action where horrendous evils are either caused, permitted, or risked, either for pure benefit or for harm avoidance.
Additional text
Vince Vitale's intellectually compelling and pastorally sensitive work offers a highly valuable resource for moral thinking about love, suffering and evil. His precise framing of God's parental relationship to beloved, suffering creatures charts fruitful routes forward for ethics across challenging personal, familial and political terrain.
