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Theodicy, Christology, and Divine Hiding: Neutralizing the Problem of Evil

This article neutralizes the intellectual problem of evil regarding divine culpability. God, it contends, is morally permitted to hide from humans (a statement of) the full divine purpose in allowing unjust suffering and evil in human lives, because it is morally too profound for them to understand properly now in a way that avoids counterproductive resistance to God and God’s full purpose. Given human moral and cognitive limitations relative to God’s superiority, we should not expect now to understand God’s full purpose properly; nor therefore should humans expect God to reveal that purpose to them. New Testament Christology illustrates this lesson about the absence of a full theodicy for humans now, and thereby contributes to neutralizing the intellectual problem of evil by removing a false expectation regarding God. The article distinguishes two kinds of theodicy, a full-explanation theodicy regarding God’s full purpose and a partial-justification theodicy regarding God’s hiding an explanation.