The problem of evil : selected readings / edited by Michael L. Peterson.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Peterson, Michael L., 1950- editor.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Good and evil.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xii, 607 pages)

Edition:

Second edition.

Place of Publication:

Notre Dame, Indiana : University of Notre Dame Press, 2017.

Summary:

Of all the issues in the philosophy of religion, the problem of reconciling belief in God with evil in the world arguably commands more attention than any other. For over two decades, Michael L. Peterson's The Problem of Evil: Selected Readings has been the most widely recognized and used anthology on the subject. Peterson's expanded and updated second edition retains the key features of the original and presents the main positions and strategies in the latest philosophical literature on the subject. It will remain the most complete introduction to the subject as well as a resource for advanced study. Peterson organizes his selection of classical and contemporary sources into four parts: important statements addressing the problem of evil from great literature and classical philosophy; debates based on the logical, evidential, and existential versions of the problem; major attempts to square God's justice with the presence of evil, such as Augustinian, Irenaean, process, openness, and felix culpa theodicies; and debates on the problem of evil covering such concepts as a best possible world, natural evil and natural laws, gratuitous evil, the skeptical theist defense, and the bearing of biological evolution on the problem. The second edition includes classical excerpts from the book of Job, Voltaire, Dostoevsky, Augustine, Aquinas, Leibniz, and Hume, and twenty-five essays that have shaped the contemporary discussion, by J. L. Mackie, Alvin Plantinga, William Rowe, Marilyn Adams, John Hick, William Hasker, Paul Draper, Michael Bergmann, Eleonore Stump, Peter van Inwagen, and numerous others. Whether a professional philosopher, student, or interested layperson, the reader will be able to work through a number of issues related to how evil in the world affects belief in God.

Contents:

Preface to the Second Edition ; Introduction: The Problem of Evil ; PART I Statements of the Problem

Explorations in Great Literature

Job's complaint and the whirlwind's answer from the Book of Job

The Lisbon Earthquake / Voltaire

Rebellion / Fyodor Dostoevsky

Treatments in traditional philosophy

No evil comes from God / St. Thomas Aquinas

Best of all possible worlds / Gottfried Leibniz

Evil makes belief in God unreasonable / David Hume

PART II Versions of the Problem

The Logical Problem

Evil and omnipotence / J.L. Mackie

The free will defense / Alvin Plantinga

The Evidential Problem

Evil, evidence, and skeptical theism-a debate / William L. Rowe, Daniel Howard-Snyder, Michael Bergmann

Christian theism and the evidential argument from evil / Michael L. Peterson

The Existential Problem

On regretting the evils of this world / William Hasker

Redemptive suffering as a Christian solution to the problem of evil / Marilyn M. Adams

PART III Perspectives in Theodicy

Augustinian Theodicy

A food creation's capacity for evil / St. Augustine

Augustine and the denial of genuine evil / David Ray Griffin

Irenaean Theodicy

Soul-making theodicy / John Hick

Paradox and promise in Hick's theodicy / William L. Rowe

Process Theodicy

Divine persuasion rather than coercion / David Roy Griffin

Evil, omnipotence, and process thought / Bruce R. Reichenbach

Openness Theodicy

God, evil, and relational risk / John Sanders

God's providence takes no risks / Paul Helm

Felix Culpa theodicy

Supralapsarianism, or, "O Felix Culpa" / Alvin Plantinga

Are sin and evil necessary for a really good world? / Kevin Diller

PART IV Issues on the problem of evil God and the best possible world

Must God create the best? / Robert M. Adams

God, moral perfection, and possible worlds / Philip L. Quinn

Natural evils and natural laws

Nature evils and moral chioice / Richard Swinburne

Knowledge, freedom and the problem of evil / Eleonore Stump

Gratutious evil and God's relation to the world

God and gratutious evil / William Hasker

Theism and gratutious natural evil / David O'Connor

Skepical theist defense

Skeptical theism and Rowe's new evidential argument from evil / Michael Bergmann

The skeptical theist response to Rowe's evidence argnument from evil / Nick Trakakis

Theim, naturalism, and the explanation of pain and pleasure

The distibution of pain and pleasure as evidence for atheism / Paul Draper

The problem of evil, the problem of air, and the problem of silence / Peter van Inwagen.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references at the end of each chapters.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9780268100353

0268100357

OCLC:

958498083