Non-Identity Theodicy

Critics of contemporary work on theodicy often complain that it fails to take deep and important issues of moral theory seriously. Vince Vitale's volume directly addresses this shortcoming, showing how careful attention to normative questions related to permitting or even causing evil reshapes how we should understand the problems of evil. Any philosopher or theologian working in this area will be forced to grapple with the arguments and challenges that Vitale lays out here. * Michael J. Murray, Author of Nature Red in Tooth and Claw: Theism and the Problem of Animal Suffering * In Non-Identity Theodicy, Vitale provides a new angle into an age-old question facing those who believe in the traditional theistic God - why does He tolerate evil? With care and clarity, Vitale makes a powerful case that the best answer to this question must take full account of a simple fact it is easy to overlook - nobody asking this question today could have existed had God created a world which was very different in these respects from the one we find ourselves in; a fortiori, none of us could have benefitted had He done so. * T. J. Mawson, University of Oxford * Creatively, rigorously and persuasively, Vince Vitale shows how the meaning-disrupting power of 'horrors' can be countered, if we take providence to be ordered not simply to the production of good states of affairs, but to particular individuals considered as the targets of an unswerving divine love. This book radically reconfigures philosophical discussion of the problem of evil - making it at once humanly more engaging, and theologically more profound. * Mark Wynn, University of Oxford * Vince Vitale's intellectually compelling and pastorally sensitive work offers a highly valuable resource for moral thinking about love, suffering and evil. His precise framing of God's parental relationship to beloved, suffering creatures charts fruitful routes forward for ethics across challenging personal, familial and political terrain. * Joshua Hordern, University of Oxford *