F. R. Tennant & Theodicy (PhD Edits) and First Use of New Blogger Interface

Sydney (trekearth)

Preface

Greetings.

This will be my first post done mainly with the new Blogger interface. It has been standard for months but because it has been more difficult to use I have been using the old Blogger interface. However, based on Blogger messages at the Dashboard I reason time is short for the old interface and I should become used to the new set-up which is superior overall with more benefits but at this point has too many problems at the word processing level. I began this post with presenting my usual world tourism photos and as I suspected from previous trials the blog look will be slightly different. So far it has been quite problematic with basic spacing issues between images and text and some of the post will have to be done with the old interface this time. I realize Blogger is a free service, but Google is a multi-billion dollar corporation at the head of Blogger and this should have been corrected months ago.

Tennant and Original Sin

F.R. Tennant (1906) rejects a traditional doctrine of original sin[1] as he writes that the doctrine is self-condemned as the idea involves original guilt.[2] He reasons that guilt is only applicable to someone who has willingly committed an act,[3]and I would agree. I do not think that all human beings are guilty of the sin of Adam and Eve, or if one prefers with some progressive positions which I do not hold to, the first persons that disobeyed God.[4] I accept the doctrine of original sin in that the corrupted nature of humanity will inevitably lead to the human choice to commit wrong actions.[5] Tennant’s concept is to reject hypothetical prior causes of ‘sin’[6] and instead views human evil as the normal process of development that takes place in the human race.[7] Moral law would need to be established ashumanity gradually develops over centuries.[8]

Tennant and Evolutionary Type Theodicy

F.R. Tennant (1930)(1956) writes an evolutionary type theodicy[9]and notes that a world characterized by static perfection is incompatible withour known world of evolutionary process.[10] Hick with a Soul-MakingTheodicy writes that some form of a two-stage creation of humanity[11] must be accepted by Christian theodicy in order to provide an effective modern, progressive approach.[12] Human beings must, through uncompelled responses and co-operation with the creator, become children of God.[13] Hick notes importantly that the soul-making evolutionary process would not be caused by natural andinevitable human progress.[14] Although there has been some ethical progress throughout history,[15]the morality of humanity remains much the same as it has always been.[16] To Hick, humanity is not being developed by a preset divine evolutionary condition towards godliness,[17]but rather God will evolve individuals through a personal spiritual experience within each person.[18] Tennant believes that infuture ages good may begin to gain over evil in accelerated speed,[19]but he acknowledges that evil may continue everlastingly, while never being able to overcome good.[20] Hick, in reviewing Tennant’s work on theodicy, views the possibility of everlasting evil as gravely weakening Tennant’s evolutionary approach.[21] It would not guarantee acompletely successful teleological[22] theodicy in which all human beings are eventually redeemed by God.[23] Hick states that there is a universal human process which will continue in most post-mortem souls, as only a few have a proper understanding of God while on earth.[24]

Tennant and Post-Mortem Existence

Tennant (1930) writes that Supreme Being is a God of the living and not of the dead,[25]and that this God would respect persons and not cut them off with everlasting death, but provide them with everlasting life.[26] An evolutionary theodicy that believes in soul-making provides all of humanity with the hope that post-mortem existence[27]will be good and an improvement from earthly life.

AUGUSTINE (398-399)(1992) Confessions,Translated by Henry Chadwick, Oxford, Oxford University Press.

BLOESCH, DONALDG. (1987) Freedom for Obedience, SanFrancisco, Harper and Rowe Publishers.

ERICKSON,MILLARD (1994) Christian Theology,Grand Rapids, Baker Book House.

ERICKSON,MILLARD (2003) What Does God Know andWhen Does He Know It?, Grand Rapids,Zondervan.

GEBARA, IVONE(2002) Out of the Depths, Translatedby Ann Patrick Ware, Minneapolis, Fortress Press.

HICK, JOHN(1970) Evil and The God of Love,London, The Fontana Library.

HICK, JOHN(1978) ‘Present and Future Life’, HarvardTheological Review, Volume 71, Number 1-2, January-April, HarvardUniversity.

HICK, JOHN(1981) Encountering Evil, Stephen T.Davis (ed.), Atlanta, John Knox Press.

HICK, JOHN(1993) ‘Afterword’ in GEIVETT, R.DOUGLAS (1993) Evil and the Evidence forGod, Philadelphia, Temple University Press.

HICK, JOHN(1993) The Metaphor of God Incarnate,Louisville, Kentucky, John Know Press.

HICK, JOHN(1994) Death and Eternal Life,Louisville, Kentucky, John Knox Press.

HICK, JOHN(1999) ‘Life after Death’, in Alan Richardson and John Bowden (eds.), A New Dictionary of Christian Theology,Kent, SCM Press.

PHILLIPS, D.Z.(1981) Encountering Evil, Stephen T.Davis (ed.), Atlanta, John Knox Press.

PHILLIPS, D.Z.(2005) The Problem of Evil and the Problem of God, Fortress Press, Minneapolis.

SCUDDER, DELTON,LEWIS (1940) Tennant’s PhilosophicalTheology, London, Oxford University Press.

TENNANT, F.R.(1906) The Origin and Propagation of Sin,Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.

TENNANT, F.R.(1930)(1956) Philosophical Theology,Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.

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[1] Tennant (1906:20).

[2] Tennant (1906: 20).

[3] Tennant (1906: 20).

[4] Tennant (1906:20).

[5] Augustine(398-399)(1992: 82). Erickson (1994:638).

[6] Tennant (1906:20).

[7] Tennant (1906: 81).

[8] Tennant (1906: 81).

[9] Tennant (1930)(1956:184).

[10] Tennant (1930)(1956: 184).

[11] Hick (1970: 291).

[12] Hick (1970: 291).

[13] Hick (1970: 291).

[14] Hick (1970: 292).

[15] Western secularismhas placed an importance on human rights in regard to women’s rights and therights of ethnic minorities. However,Gebara would state that women’s suffering worldwide need to be better understood through a feminist construct. There is a male view of evil that has been predominant throughout Christian history. Gebara (2002: 4-6).

[16] Hick (1970: 292).

[17] Hick (1970: 292).

[18] Hick (1970: 292).

[19] Tennant(1930)(1956: 195).

[20] Tennant (1930)(1956: 195).

[21] Hick (1970: 252-253).

[22] Bloesch (1987: 19).

[23] Hick (1970: 252-253).

[24] Hick in Davis (2001: 51). Phillips (2005: 87).

[25] Tennant (1930:205).

[26] Tennant (1930: 205).

[27] Hick (1978:13).