Disability and the Theodicy of Defeat

Authors

  • Aaron D. Cobb Auburn University at Montgomery
  • Kevin Timpe Calvin College

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.12978/jat.v5i1.148

Abstract

Marilyn McCord Adams argues that God’s goodness to individuals requires God to defeat horrendous evils; it is not enough for God to outweigh these evils through compensatory goods. On her view, God defeats the evils experienced by an individual if and only if God’s goodness to the individual enables her to integrate the evil organically into a unified life story she perceives as good and meaningful. In this essay, we seek to apply Adams’s theodicy of defeat to a particular form of suffering. We argue that God’s goodness to individuals requires that God defeat the suffering to which a range of disabilities can give rise. 

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Published

2017-04-12

Issue

Section

Articles