Theodrama as Theodicy

Ch. 5 of 5 in My Master's Thesis on the Author Analogy for God

Here’s the final chapter of my Systematic Theology Master’s Thesis on the Author Analogy for the God-World relation, that is, that God relates to the world like an author relates to his story. In chapter 1 I went over different kinds and strengths of analogy (and analogical predication) in order to get clear on the kind of analogy Kevin Vanhoozer uses in his author analogy for God. In chapter 2 I covered some of the history of the author analogy and some of the doctrines it’s been used to explicate. In chapter 3 I covered Kevin Vanhoozer’s distinct conception of the author analogy. In chapter 4 I covered the dialogical determinism inherent to Vanhoozer’s analogy and defended it against the authoring evil, epistemological self-defeat, and manipulation objections. And finally, here in chapter 5 I conclude by applying Vanhoozer’s model to various problems of evil in order to show that not only can Vanhoozer’s model be defended against objections, it can also go on the offensive and give unique solutions to various problems of evil as well, such as:

• how is there evil at all?

• why is there evil at all?

• why does God seem hidden if He’s all-loving?

• what about gratuitous evil?

• why is there so much evil?

  • I’ve also extended the model to deal with divine neglect and hiddenness (again) in this open access paper published in Perichoresis here.

So, find all those other chapters linked above and enjoy this one. This is heavy stuff and I wrote it while studying analytic theology and continental philosophy, so it’s an interesting mix to be sure. If I had written it during my analytic philosophy MA things would have looked a lot different but I am still very pleased with how it came out. If you’re a Christian publisher reading this, then yes, I would love to rewrite it, rework it, and extend it in full book length! Let’s talk!

Okay, onward into the last installment.

Chapter 5: Theodrama and Theodicy

Plot Problems

Thus far, we have supped up Vanhoozer’s analogia auctoris with the help of modern theories in the philosophy of free will and self-defeat in order to staved off the various charges of authoring sin and evil. But what about Blocher’s logico-speculative question? What is the origin or cause of evil if God is not its author? Likewise, why is there evil in God’s story at all? Furthermore, what about Authorial Neglect, purposeless evil which does not fit within the plot, and authorial logorrhea, i.e. the vast amount of evil in the story? In this final chapter will attempt to explain these apparent plot problems for Vanhoozer’s analogia, starting with the “how” of evil, followed by the “why” and we will finish with hiddenness, gratuitous evil, and the problem of the amount of evil. Different problems of evil will take different shapes according to the system of theology which they are attacking, thus we will expound on how these particular problems might be posed for Vanhoozer’s God-world relation: the analogia auctoris. Along with our presentation of the unique problems of evil as they arise for Vanhoozer’s analogy, we will also seek to give our own defenses to the problems using the very same tools which Vanhoozer has provided in his own explication of his authorial analogy.

As Greg Welty defines it, a theodicy is an attempt “to justify (Greek: dike) the ways of God (Greek: theos) to men in the face of widespread pain and suffering that strikes us as wholly unjustified.[1] In giving a theodicy, a justification of the ways of God to men in the face of evil, we are cautioned by Blocher that “it would…be exceeding the teaching of the texts [of Scripture] to think that there we have the final explanation of evil.”[2] Likewise, Vanhoozer warns that “Those who seek a ‘theodicy’ as a way of relieving God from authorial responsibility for evil mistakenly employ a form not of biblical but of modern discourse that actually distorts one’s reading of biblical texts.”[3]

The cautions of Blocher and Vanhoozer are not taken lightly. We ought to be exceedingly cautious in any attempts to explain or justify evil lest we become guilty of calling evil good and good evil. However, it is our contention that Vanhoozer’s analogia auctoris actually provides the tools for thinking through biblically informed and generated theodramatic greater-glory theodicies for explaining the various problems of evil which arise for it. Before we proceed, let us consider Vanhoozer’s understanding of theodrama: