Dostoevsky’s Critique of Theodicy

In the previous chapter I showed the failure of traditional themes of theodicy to resolve, in themselves, the problem of evil. In theodical dialogue the themes of aesthetics, retribution and free-will beg for teleological support; traditional theodicy always moves to teleology. But in so doing I did not illustrate the problems that arise in this natural teleological movement. The purpose of this chapter is to examine in a practical and relevant manner the issues connected with these traditional themes, before turning to the more abstract developments that we find in systematic teleological theodicies. These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.