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Evil, a challenge to Philosophy and Theology

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Added on  2021-04-16

Evil, a challenge to Philosophy and Theology

   Added on 2021-04-16

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Running head: EVIL, A CHALLENGE TO PHILOSOPHY AND THEOLOGYEvil, a challenge to Philosophy and Theology Name of the Student:Name of the University:Author’s Note:
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1EVIL, A CHALLENGE TO PHILOSOPHY AND THEOLOGY“...evils are not caused by God; rather, that they are a part of the nature of matter and ofmankind; that the period of mortal life is the same from beginning to end, and that becausethings happen in cycles, what is happening now — evils that is — happened before and willhappen again.”The above quoted lines of Celsus from the famous work “On the True Doctrine”clearly indicate the meaning attached to the concept of evil and the role of God in thatparticular concept. It is to be noted that evil, the role of God in that evil and the veryexistence of God have a topic of much debate since the ancient times. Paul Ricoeur’s “EVIL,A CHALLENGE TO PHILOSOPHY AND THEOLOGY” is one such work which questionsthe meaning of God and the role of God in that particular mechanism. This essay intends toshed light on this particular work of Ricoeur and will also give my response to this particularwork.Jean Paul Gustave Ricœur (1913-2005) was a French philosopher who is famous for“combining phenomenological description with hermeneutics”. Most of his works questionthe nature of evil in the world and the existence of God in the framework of the modernsociety. The essence of his major works is synonymous with the “other major hermeneuticphenomenologists, Edmund Husserl and Hans-Georg Gadamer”. Thus, in his major workslike “Evil, a Challenge to Philosophy and Theology” he says “The whole enigma of evil maybe said to lie in the fact that, at least in the traditions of the West, we put under the sameterms such different phenomena as sin, suffering, and death. However, evil as wrongdoingand evil as suffering belong to two heterogenous categories, that of blame and that oflament". He even questions the nature of the all-powerful God in lines like “How can weaffirm at the same time, without any contradiction, the following three propositions: God isall powerful; God is absolutely good; yet evil exists? Theodicies, in this sense, appear to be abattle for the sake of coherence, in response to the objection that only two of the three stated
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