ABSTRACT
John Hick thinks, for an adequate response to the problem of evil and suffering. The problem, at least for Christian theology, is a matter of reconciling the existence of evil with the existence of an all-loving and all-powerful God. In Evil and the God of Love Hick identifies two different streams of argument in the concern of theodicy: the Augustinian and the Irenaean. Perfecting human beings takes longer than a single lifetime; and evil and suffering can, in the short term, actually work against the soul-making project and destroy souls just as effectively as making them. In responding positively to Hick's soul-making idea, the American philosopher Linda Zagzebski suggests a modification that involves the affirmation of personal development without any strings attached. The notion of epistemic distance appears to have a significant place in Hick's philosophical theology, it is bound up with an epistemological perspective which stresses the free experiential and voluntary nature of religious experiencing-as.
