Man and Divinity

Hick is a contemporary philosopher who addresses the problem of evil with a revised look at the works of Irenaeus. Irenaeus looked to the history of humanity as a form of salvation. That God created man as a child and is watching every step to ensure man matures to the divine state. Thus the world is intended to be difficult so that man will mature and overcome these ever increasing difficulties. Hick takes these ideas and addresses the problem of evil in the world with them. The contention being, “If God is Omni benevolent, Omniscient and Omnipotent, why does evil exist in the world”? Hick borrows Irenaeus’ theodicy and revises it to explain that evil exists so that individual intelligence, virtue and spiritual perfection may come about. This is only possible if a world of free creatures exist and they act esti deus non daratur, ’as if there were no God’. Thus evil comes not from the fall of man but because God created a world suited for his purpose, to develop man for divinity. “Man exists at a distance from God’s goal for him, however, not because he has fallen from that goal but because he has yet to arrive at it” (319). On the individual level, man faces pain and suffering to develop himself for Gods kingdom, and the larger level of humanity, evil exists to make man a perfect creature deserving immortality.
“we must admit ‘a two-stage conception of the creation of man’. On the one hand he is the product of a long evolutionary process which resulted in his being made capable of the infinite. This stage was easy enough for the divine omnipotence for in the process the ‘man-to-be’ was largely the subject of divinely organized processes. But the second state in which the man-that-had-come-to-be attains perfection as a child of God the process is long and labored” (McDonald 86).

Thus, by Gods design, evil exists for the perfection of man, and though we are in the process I will argue that Man is closer to obtaining this goal than we believe.
Man’s Evil
The claim is that God created the perfect world, but if the world is so perfect, why does evil exist? The first question that really should come to mind is, where is evils origin? The answer is split into two categories, the evil of man, and natural evil. The first look is going to be mans evil. “it is logically impossible for God to obtain your love-unforced-by-anything-outside-you and yet himself force it” (309). The previous quote is a statement to the effect that God did not create man to force his love, but instead created man to be grow and come into God’s love willingly. This means that God created man with free will, to do so otherwise will undermine Gods own purpose here. It is mans independence from God that allows for the origin of moral evil.
Natural Evil
The problem of Natural evil in Hick’s Theodicy is not a large problem. Hick’s explains the problem of evil as a non-evil entity but a growth entity and that evil is in itself a relative problem. Natural evil cannot be removed from the world because the world is a “soul-making vale” and that to remove the harshest evils will make the second harshest evil the harshest, and so forth, until we arrive at the point that there is no evil in the world and the process of a soul-making vale becomes irrelevant. Therefore natural evil must exist in order for man to become a divine being. It is the poor judgment of man to live on the side of a volcano, and that will cause man to grow in his intelligence and that will make him a more divine creature, granted only slightly, but all of these trial and error mistakes man makes eventually allows man to become fully divine. It is the shrinking world, by shrinking I mean the routes of communication, that speeds up this process.
Free Will
My biggest contention is that free will must exist for Hick’s Soul Making Theodicy. That man has the ability to make moral choices to mature and become divine in nature. Taken at an individual level, free will is an illusion. The choices a person makes are not actual choices but mere desires getting filled. A persons up-bringing and genetics are what design the desires, and his preferences are also designed by the same two inputs, thus a closed system that is determined from the onset. The traces of all decisions can be placed far back in history by causal-event analysis, and therefore, free-will doesn’t truly exist on the individual level. However, looking at the grander scale of humanity, you can see choices that are not pre-determined. The evolution of culture, war, and society is not easily predicted, and though it does not mean that it is not pre-determined but makes a stronger case for free will. There are too many inputs to factor how the society made the decision to use business suits as business wear and not casual wear, or how the development of nuclear bombs came before the development of mass incendiary bombs. Thus on he grander scale, free-will does shape mankind, and it is here that Hick’s soul-making can be seen.
Evolution of the Soul
The advancements of society and culture is the greatest way to see the development of mankind’s soul. How government has slowly left the ways of dictatorships and a promotion of global freedom is growing. The Geneva doctrine of human rights, the establishment of the United Nations and its peacekeeping policies, the end of the cold war saw the growth of peaceful decision making, all point to grand leaps of divine growth however, evil is still strong. The devastation that is brought from genocide, the creation of even more powerful weapons, and the disasters of nature having more effect, are the results of this evil. Mankind has not yet even seen the finish line where divinity lays, but the process of maturity and growth is stronger. Not less than 300 years ago did we see an end to oppression on a grand scale, and less than 50 years ago did we see the world unite in efforts to create peace and end war. Less than 5 years ago saw the boom of humanitarian efforts and the growth of science and technology to increase the global health, not just isolated portions for private gain.
Hick’s soul-making theodicy is a strong theory that holds well and shows it progress easily. It accounts for the reasons of evil, and with digging can hold to where evil comes from. The process of humanity growing can also be traced, and be seen to growing ever more. Irenaeus’ theodicy gave Hicks the needed ammunition to show that evil is not evil, but in a larger picture, actually the work of good. God is Omni benevolent, and has the interest of humanity in his mind. Mankind is well on its path to divinity, no longer are we the children who disobeyed god in a fit and ate from the tree of knowledge, instead mankind has become the young adolescent who has the right ideas, but still follows its impulses. Thus I am confident that divinity may be achieved for the whole of humanity.