Thinking theologically about theodicy

The topic of theodicy is often discussed merely as a philosophical problem. In the worst cases, it’s little more than an intellectual puzzle about reconciling various abstract divine attributes with an abstract concept of “evil.” What we really need, however, is to approach the so-called problem of evil from an explicitly theological standpoint – which is to say, from the standpoint of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

A number of books have taken up this challenge in different ways. If you wanted to read just four books, I’d recommend these ones:

• Karl Barth, Church Dogmatics III/3, §50 “God and Nothingness” (1950)
• Jürgen Moltmann, The Crucified God (1973)
• Marilyn McCord Adams, Horrendous Evils and the Goodness of God (1999)
• David Bentley Hart, The Doors of the Sea: Where Was God in the Tsunami? (2005)