Moving Ahead on Southgate's Compound Only-Way Evolutionary Theodicy
Southgate offers a remarkable evolutionary theodicy that includes six affirmations and arguments; together they form a unique and very persuasive proposal which he terms a "compound only-way evolutionary theodicy." Here I summarize the arguments and offer critical reflections on them for f...
| Subtitles: | Engaging the Scholarship of Christopher Southgate |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Routledge
[2019]
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| In: |
Theology and science
Year: 2019, Volume: 17, Issue: 2, Pages: 185-194 |
| RelBib Classification: | AB Philosophy of religion; criticism of religion; atheism CF Christianity and Science NBC Doctrine of God NBD Doctrine of Creation NBE Anthropology |
| Further subjects: | B
eschatology and cosmology
B cosmic theodicy B Evil B ambiguous goodness of creation B co-suffering B Evolutionary theodicy B thermodynamics and evolutionary biology |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (Resolving-System) |
| Summary: | Southgate offers a remarkable evolutionary theodicy that includes six affirmations and arguments; together they form a unique and very persuasive proposal which he terms a "compound only-way evolutionary theodicy." Here I summarize the arguments and offer critical reflections on them for further development, with an emphasis on the ambiguity in the goodness of creation; the role of thermodynamics in evolutionary biology; the challenge of horrendous evil in nature; and the theological response to theodicy in terms of eschatology, with its own severe challenge from cosmology. Using a text box, I suggest how the 6 arguments create a unique synthetic whole, and how the removal of any one of them would diminish the argument as a whole. I then suggest how Southgate's treatment of the key question, "Why not just heaven?" adds a crucial seventh argument to produce an even more splendid and promising whole. |
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| ISSN: | 1474-6719 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Theology and science
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1080/14746700.2019.1596251 |