ABSTRACT
Among the several meanings of the term theodicy, I am choosing the broad conceptual meaning of: vindication of the justice of God, especially in ordaining and permitting moral evil.1 In this chapter, I pursue the issue by way of two foundational texts, the Bible and the Qur’an, both of which deal with God’s creation of humanity (in the form of Adam and Adam’s wife) and the manner in which humanity (again in the form of Adam and his wife) rebelled against the Creator. The two scripturalist narratives share a great many features, most important among them the concept that sin – evil – entered God’s creation through acts of disobedience and rebellion by Satan and primordial humanity, all of them God’s creatures whom God had endowed with the power of choice. At the same time, the two narratives diverge on the fundamental question of the nature of mankind, indeed the nature of the world, after God had punished their disobedience with banishment. The Biblical account ends with the affirmation of Adam’s mortality “you are dust, and to dust you shall return”. Christian theology later developed the notion that Adam’s disobedience was the very reason for all sin and death, so that Adam’s fall required Christ’s redemption. The Qur’anic narrative, on the other hand, ends with the humans’ repentance, God’s forgiveness, and God’s promise of guidance for all.
