Tag Archives: theodicy

Creation, Theodicy, and the Problem of Evil

Posted on 12 April 2021 by Fr Aidan Kimel

by Robert F. Fortuin This essay sets forth the claim that the absolute freedom of God’s act of creation informs the nature and meaning of evil. Because God created the universe without prior constraint or necessity, His moral nature and … Continue reading →

Posted in Gregory of Nyssa, Robert Fortuin | Tagged , , , , | 34 Comments

If God is going to deify everyone anyway, why not deify everyone immediately?

Posted on 20 January 2021 by Fr Aidan Kimel

by David Bentley Hart Frankly, Al, I find the question very strange. In part, because its premise is an absolute banality: that life is a kind of contest, played within the arbitrary constraints of the clock, at the end of … Continue reading →

Posted in David B. Hart, Eschatology | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 132 Comments

Suffering, Theodicy, and Apocatastasis

Posted on 19 August 2019 by Fr Aidan Kimel

“What then, one might well ask, is divine providence?” David Bentley Hart poses this ques­tion after pondering upon the evil and suffering of the world in his beautiful little book The Doors of the Sea. Hart compares the orthodox Christian … Continue reading →

Posted in David B. Hart | Tagged , , , , , , , | 28 Comments

Dionysian Ponderings: The Parhypostatic Nullity of Evil

Posted on 1 August 2018 by Fr Aidan Kimel

Ecstatic movement from the Good and Beautiful into the multiplicity of the good and beautiful, succeeded by joyful return to the Good and Beautiful. From God, in God, through God, to God. Abiding, procession, reversion; diffusion, illumination, union. Creation and … Continue reading →

Posted in Dionysius the Areopagite | Tagged , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Suffering and Death: Elements of an Orthodox Theodicy

Posted on 24 April 2018 by Fr Aidan Kimel

I was invited to take part with two other pastors in a panel discussion yesterday at Life Pacific College in Christiansburg, Virginia on the topic of suffering, evil, and God. We were each given 20 minutes for our initial presentations. … Continue reading →

Posted in Theology | Tagged , , , , , | 29 Comments

Ainulindalë: The Great Music and the Cacophony of Melkor

Posted on 22 February 2018 by Fr Aidan Kimel

Eru teaches the Ainur his divine music and invites them to elaborate upon the theme, each according to his gifts and creativity. And so they sing, fashioning “the theme of Ilúvatar into a great music.” Their voices fill the halls … Continue reading →

Posted in Inklings & Company | Tagged , , , , , , | 21 Comments

Julian of Norwich and the God who Delights to Die

Posted on 20 November 2017 by Fr Aidan Kimel

“Sin is befitting, but all shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well” (Revelations LT 27). On reading these words of Christ to Julian of Norwich we might be tempted to think that … Continue reading →

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Cross, Exsultet, and the Behoveliness of Sin

Posted on 15 November 2017 by Fr Aidan Kimel

Dame Julian of Norwich presents us with antinomies which most of us (excepting hard-core Calvinists and traditional Thomists) would dismiss as metaphysical contradictions and moral nonsense: In his infinite power, God might have created a world in which all human … Continue reading →

Posted in Julian of Norwich | Tagged , , , , , , , | 17 Comments