Hick’s Soul-making Theodicy

Whose ideas is it based on/what is it sometimes referred to as?

Based on the ideas of Iraneaus so often called an Iranaean theodicy

What are the key ideas of this theodicy and what do they mean?

• The world is a place for ‘soul-making’ - this refers to developing morally and spiritually

• We grow from the image of God in to the likeness of God by countering evil and learning to make the right choices in response to it

• Universal salvation: everyone will be saved - the soul making process continues after death in purgatory, after which all souls are brought into the likeness of God and granted eternal salvation (this is the eschatological aspect). This is necessary because there wouldn’t be any point to suffering without the promise of salvation, and there are so many example of children who die without being able to soul make who are then given the chance in purgatory

How does this theodicy explain moral and natural evil?

• Moral evil: a result of humans having free will (which is necessary for the soul making process)

• Natural evil: it gives humans the opportunity to be morally good, and through this suffering we can also learn that we need God - it’s necessary to create the kind of world in which soul-making happens, we grow through suffering and it means we must make decisions about whether to alleviate evil or not

What is epistemic distance?

• God keeps us in the dark about whether he exists and how to be good - there is a distance between what we know and what he knows

• If we knew for certain God exists, things would be too easy and we would not have free will

• This would mean proper soul making couldn’t happen and we would have no opportunity to grow closer to God - soul making needs to be a process from ignorance to knowledge

• Epistemology: the study of knowledge

What are some criticisms of this theodicy and might Hick argue against them?

• relies on the soul’s survival after death - unscientific (there is no evidence for what happens after death, Jesus’s resurrection proves life after death)

• Everyone, including Hitler, will reach heaven eventually (no one deserves eternal punishment, he would’ve fully repented then)

• No incentive to do good in this life, we could just soul make in purgatory (incentive=less time in purgatory/more time with God

• There couldn’t be a heaven so wonderful it is worth all this suffering (being with God is worth it, we can’t conceive how great it is)

• Some obstacles make us worse not better (you choose to turn away from God/your reaction)

• Someone else’s suffering could be my salvation, but D.Z Phillip’s argues that instrumentalism is wrong (if god is using it it must be right)

• Not compatible with literalist view of Bible, argues that the fall/jesus are parables (so are a lot of things, there isn’t one ‘right’ interpretation)

• You can develop morally in other ways eg. Working hard for an exam (but would you develop spiritually?)

• Dysteliological evil (with no purpose) isn’t explained here (deny fawn situation, holocaust serves some purpose???)

Eschatological aspect

The idea that soul-making continues after death into the afterlife - this is necessary for this theodicy because, for example, some babies die shortly after being born and an all-loving God would not allow them to suffer for no reason