Updated:
April 19, 2006:
University
of Windsor: Course
Website
07-323: "GOD and EVIL" (Winter
2006)
Dr. B. L. Whitney, B.A., Ph.D.
Professor,
Philosophy of Religion, Christianity, Religion & Culture
Class
Email: please use the course number (07-323)
in the subject area
Phone: please use email to contact
the professor
Professor's Office: 7104 Lambton Tower (7th
floor)
Office
Hours: Jan 10-April 13, 2006: Tues and Thurs,
2:10-3:40
OFFICIAL COURSE
OUTLINE:
Contains Student Obligations and
Protocol for Class, Final Exam
and MidTerm Test dates and information,
etc. Please note that this "Course
Outline" [including this webpage]
constitutes the "Official
Outline" for the Winter 2006 version
of this course.
This Outline REPLACES any and all brief,
general outlines published in the
University of Windsor calendar
and on the Registrar's webpage.
ASSIGNED
TEXTS
1.
Stephen Davis, editor, Encountering
Evil (2nd ed: 2001)
2. Gregory Boyd, Is
God to Blame? (2004)
3. Peter Kreeft, Making
Sense Out of Suffering (1986)
4. Web documents and various items in the Library's
Reserve Reading
WEEKLY
SCHEDULE of TOPICS and ASSIGNED
(REQUIRED) READINGS
Week 01-Jan 12: [First
class]: INTRODUCTION
Week 02-Jan 19: THEODICY
BASICS: Davis EE intro; Intro:
GE ch 1, Formulations
of Problem of Evil
Week 03-Jan 26:
Monothesitic Theodicy and Eastern Theodicy: Buddhism and Hinduism;
Religion Stats
Week 04-Feb 02: Professor
at Conference in Los Angeles: prepare Kreeft
chapters !+2 and Roth readings
Week 05-Feb 09: Kreeft,
ch 1+2; ANTI-THEODICY
PROTEST: Roth,
EE ch 1; Sum
of Roth; Dostoevsky
Week 06-Feb 16: ANTI-THEODICY
FAITHISM: Faithism:
GEch
2; , Holocasut:
GE ch 9;
Week 07-Feb 23: Job
Overview; (Book
of Job), Job; Psalm
22;
Logical and Evidential Problems (lectures)
Week 08-March 02: Winter Break Week (Study
Week)
Week
09-March 09: Midterm
Test at 4:00
Week 10-March 16: CONTEMPORARY
THEODICIES: Lecture
notes: EE book ch 2, 3, 4 summary; EE
book summary
Week 11-March 23: Continue the discussion
of EE book (Davis, Hick, Griffin)
Week 12-March 30: TRADITIONAL
THEODICIES (brief lecture
notes); Boyd book (chapters
2-7)
Week
13-April 06: Professor at Conference
in Chicago: Prepare notes
on Kreeft book (chapters 4-7)
Week 14-April
13: [Final
Class]: Complete
the course: discussion of the
Kreeft and Boyd books, etc. and 6
theses; Warfare
Week
15-April 20: Final
Exam at 3:30 (CAW Centre: AA, rows
A-I)
DETAILED
OUTLINE of WEEKLY TOPICS and ASSIGNED
READINGS
SECTION
ONE: THEODICY: ANTI-THEODICY, FAITH
AND RATIONALITY
[Part 1A] Introduction to the Problem of
God and Evil (Theodicy)
Text: Davis, Encountering Evil (EE),
vii-xiii
Text: Kreeft, Making
Sense of Suffering, chapters 1-2
Web: Whitney, God and Evil (GE), chapter
1
Web: McCallum, Formulations
of the problem of evil
Web:
Passantinos, The
Problem of God and Suffering
Web: Natural/Physical
Suffering (disasters)
Web: Moral
and Social Evils (selected
list)
Web: America's
Hidden "Holocaust" (selected)
Web: Overview
of Buddhism and
Suffering
Web: Overview
of Hinduism and
Suffering
Web: Overview of
Taoism and Suffering
Web: Overview of
Islam and Suffering
Web: New
Age and Evil 1
and 2
Web: World
Religions and
the Problem of
Evil
Web: World
Religions
Web: World
Religions and Suffering
Web: World
Religions Stats (chart)
Web: American
Religious Beliefs (chart)
Web: Canadian
Religious Beliefs (selected
tables)
[Part
1B] Anti-Theodicy Protest
Text: Roth Encountering Evil (EE),
chapter 1
Web: Commentary
on Roth's views
Web: Dostoevsky, "Rebellion"; (Bk
5, ch 4)
Web: Whitney, GE, chapter
9: Jewish
Responses to the Holocaust
Web: Holocaust and Holocaust
Theology
Web: Christianity,
Naturalism, and the Holocaust
Audio Tape and lecture notes: Wiesel, Ani
Maamin
Web: Whitney, Response
to Anti-Theodicy
[Part 1C] Anti-Theodicy Faith
(Active vs Passive)
Web: Whitney, GE, chapter
2
Web: The Book of Job: The
Book of Job; Boyd, IGB, ch4;
Hahn, Job
Overview
Web: Analysis
of he Book of Job (Sutherland)
Web: Stedman Lessons
From Job and The
Hardest Question
Web: Lament Psalms: Psalm
22, Psalm
88, Psalm 130
Web: Groothuis, Defending
Religious Beliefs (07-221)
Web: Dulle, Why
Theology is Important (Faith
and Reason)
Library Reserve: Reason and Religious
Belief, ch 3
Library: Reserve: Schilling, God and
Human Anguish, chapter 3
SECTION
TWO: CONTEMPORARY THEODICIES
[Part 2A] Evangelical Free Will Theodicy
Text: Davis, Encountering Evil, ch
3
Library Reserve: LPE and EPE in Rowe, Philosopohy
of Religion, ch 6 (Library)
Web: Encountering
Evil text summaries (Davis, Roth, Hick,
Griffin)
Web: Rood, Overview
of Logical and Evidential Problems
[Part
2B] Irenaean Theodicy
Text: Hick, Encountering Evil, ch
2
Web: Commentary
on Hick's theodicy
Library Reserve: Whitney, God and
Evil, ch 5
[Part
2C] Process Theodicy
Text: Griffin, Encountering Evil,
ch 4
Web: Commentary
on Griffin's views
Web: David
Griffin Theodicy page
Web: Whitney's
Aesthetic Theodicy
Library Reserve: Whitney, God and
Evil, ch 6
Library Reserve: Whitney, Evil and
the Process God
Video and Lecture notes: Griffin's Theodicy
Video and Lecture notes: Kushner, When
Bad Things Happen to Good People
[Part
2D] Other Contemporary Theodices
Library Reserve: Whitney, God and Evil, ch
7 and 8
Library Reserve: Griffin, God, Power and
Evil (various)
SECTION
THREE: TRADITIONAL THEODICIES
[Part 3A] Augustine and Catholic Theodicy
Text: Boyd, Is God to Blame? ch
2
Library Reserve: Whitney, God and Evil, ch
4
Web: Commentary
on Augustine's Theodicy (Faithnet)
Web: Catholic
Predestination: Thomists and Molinists (Ott)
Web: Catholic
predestination and Freewill (Kolasinski)
Web: The
Free will-divine determinism problem
in Catholic Theodicy
Web: Traditional
Theodicy
[Part 3B] Augustine and Reformed
Protestant Theodicy
Web: The
Calvinist Defense of Predestination (reference
resource)
Web: Extreme
vs Moderate Calvinism (Beaumount)
Web: Clark
on Calvinist Theodicy
Web: Calvinism
on Predestination and Freewill
Web: Calvinism's
God and Moral Responsibility
[Part
3C] Other Traditional Theodicies: Protestant,
Eastern Orthodoxy, Anglican, Evangelical.
Mystical, etc.
Web: Eastern
Orthodoxy on Grace and Predestination (reference
resource)
Web: Predestination
and Free will in Eastern Orthodox Belief (Milatios)
Web: Anglican Theodicy: C.S.
Lewis (Bacz);
Library Reserve: The
Problem of Pain/A Grief Observed (C.S.
Lewis)
Web: Moderate Calvinism: Geisler:
Modernate Calvinism vs Open Theism
Video and Lecture notes: Geisler
SECTION
FOUR: TRADITIONAL BIBLICAL AND SPIRITUAL
WARFARE THEODICIES
Text; Kreeft, Making Sense Out of Suffering
(ch 1-10)
Text: Boyd, Is God to Blame? (ch
1-7)
Web: Boyd's
Spiritual Warfare Website; (Six Theses;
Does God Ordain Evil?)
Web: Belief in Satan: Barna
stats
Web: Satan
and Spiritual Warfare (part one:
Harrington)
Web: Angels,
SATAN, demons (Litke)
Library Reserve: C.S. Lewis, The
ScrewTape Letters
Web: Spiritual Warfare: Stedman
Web: Ecclesiastes (Stedman)
Lecture: Biblical Theodicy: : Whitney, God
and Evil ch 3 and Theodicy
