theodicy en · NOUN
Pronunciation
- thēŏʹdĭsi (UK)
- /θiˈɑd.ɪ.si/ (General-American)
- /θiːˈɒd.ɪ.si/ (UK)
Etymology
Borrowed from French théodicée, from Ancient Greek θεός (theós, “god”) + δίκη (díkē, “justice”), coined by German mathematician and philosopher Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz in his 1710 work Essais de Théodicée sur la bonté de Dieu, la liberté de l'homme et l'origine du mal (Essays of Theodicy on the Goodness of God, the Freedom of Man and the Origin of Evil), commonly known as Théodicée.
Meanings
-
A justification of a deity or of particular attributes of a deity; specifically, a justification of the existence of evil and suffering in the world; a work or discourse justifying the ways of God.
Distilling the characteristic features of the theodicies of the world religions, Weber identified five varieties or forms that the answers to this problem take, which in his view speaks to the varieties of forms that religion itself takes: a messiah who initiates the end of the world as we know it, the transmigration of souls, a universal day of judgment, predestination, or dual divinities of good and evil.
2002, Kevin J. Christiano, William H. Swatos, Peter Kivisto, Sociology of Religion: Contemporary Developments, Rowman & Littlefield (Altamira Press), page 129:2000 [Kluwer Academic], Charles Seymour, A Theodicy of Hell, 2010, Springer, Softcover reprint, page 195, In general, my theodicy of hell is more congenial to those denominations with less rigidly defined doctrinal systems. Does this mean I have allowed theodicy to encroach on theology, contrary to my avowed purpose?
God was now nothing more than a distant cause of causes; what mattered was matter, and man acting in nature. The theodicy, the master-narrative, had become secularized.
2003, Roy Porter, Flesh in the Age of Reason, Penguin 2004, page 388:
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| theodicies | Number=Plur | lexicographic | |
| theodicity | alternative | lexicographic |
Deriveds
Relateds
anthropodicy · problem of evil · goalodicy · cosmodicy · theosophy · eutheism · sociodicy · apologism · dystheism · theology
Translations (27)
hu teodicea (justification of a deity) · nl theodicee (justification of a deity) · ru теодицея (justification of a deity) · sv teodicé (justification of a deity) · cmn 神义论 (justification of a deity) · fr théodicée (justification of a deity) · tl palabathalaan (justification of a deity) · tl teodisea (justification of a deity) · cmn 神正论 (justification of a deity) · ka თეოდიცეა (justification of a deity) · pt teodiceia (justification of a deity) · hu theodicea (justification of a deity) · cs theodicea (justification of a deity) · fi pahan ongelma (justification of a deity) · tr teodise (justification of a deity) · ka თეოდიკეა (justification of a deity) · sh teodiceja (justification of a deity) · pl teodycea (justification of a deity) · oc teodicea (justification of a deity) · ca teodicea (justification of a deity) · es teodicea (justification of a deity) · it teodicea (justification of a deity) · et teodiike (justification of a deity) · hu teodícea (justification of a deity) · hu istentan (justification of a deity) · de Theodizee (justification of a deity) · hu istenigazolás (justification of a deity)