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John Feinberg concludes that God could not both create a utopia and, at the same time, human beings as they are presently in a good world without constraining persons.[1] However, some critics such as Bertrand Russell, would deny that God will ever bring about a utopia,[2] and would deny that the world is a just place presently.[3] Bertrand Russell (1957)(1976) states that since the universe often lacks justice presently there is no good scientific reason to believe that God would eventually bring about justice.[4]
To Feinberg, if God had used any of the eight methods described in The Many Faces of Evil, the world would not be as good as it is presently.[5] God in his sovereignty has dealt with his creation in the correct manner, including with the problem of evil.[6]
There is within
Feinberg’s theodicy the assumption that God has brought about a good,
worthwhile world despite the problem of evil.[7] Feinberg, unlike
Russell,[8] assumes that the world
contains a level of goodness and justice that makes the idea of the Christian
God as creator reasonable.[9]
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AUGUSTINE (398-399)(1992) Confessions, Translated by Henry Chadwick, Oxford, Oxford University Press.
AUGUSTINE (400-416)(1987)(2004) On the Trinity, Translated by Reverend Arthur West Haddan, in Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series One, Volume 3, Denver, The Catholic Encyclopedia.
AUGUSTINE (421)(1998) Enchiridion, Translated by J.F. Shaw, Denver, The Catholic Encyclopedia.
AUGUSTINE (426)(1958) The City of God, Translated by Gerald G. Walsh, Garden City, New York, Image Books.
AUGUSTINE (427)(1997) On Christian Doctrine, Translated by D.W. Robertson Jr., Upper Saddle River, N.J., Prentice Hall.
AUGUSTINE (427b)(1997) On Christian
Teaching, Translated by R.P.H. Green, Oxford, Oxford University Press.
FEINBERG, JOHN S. (1994) The Many Faces of Evil, Grand Rapids, Zondervan Publishing House.
HICK, JOHN (1970) Evil and The God of Love, London, The Fontana Library.
HICK, JOHN (1978) ‘Present and Future Life’, Harvard Theological Review, Volume 71, Number 1-2, January-April, Harvard University.
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 for God, 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.
PLANTINGA, ALVIN C. (1977)(2002) God, Freedom, and Evil, Grand Rapids, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company.
RUSSELL, BERTRAND (1957)(1976) Why I am not a Christian, Simon and Schuster Inc., in John R. Burr and Milton Goldinger (eds.), Philosophy and Contemporary Issues, London, Collier Macmillan Publishers.
[1] Feinberg (1994: 136).
[2] Russell (1957)(1976:
120).
[3] Russell (1957)(1976:
120).
[4] Russell (1957)(1976:
120).
[5] Feinberg (1994:
136).
[6] Feinberg (1994:
136). Augustine, Plantinga and Hick as well would reason God was good in
these dealings. Augustine (388-395)(1964: 3). Plantinga (1982:
167). Hick (1970: 217).
[7] Feinberg (1994:
136).
[8] Russell (1957)(1976:
120).
[9] Feinberg (1994: 136).
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