Philosophy of Religion Research
Brian Davies on the Problem of Evil: A Critical Study
Document Type : Original Research
Authors
1 PhD Graduate in Philosophy of Religion, University of Tehran, Farabi Campus, Tehran, Iran
2 Assistant Professor at Department of Philosophy of religion, University of Tehran, Farabi Campus, Qom, Iran
Abstract
Brian Davies is one of the contemporary philosophers of religion who has given serious critiques of the dominant approach in contemporary philosophy of religion. Based on the traditional theology of Aquinas, he has tried to offer a different answer to the problem of evil. By criticism of the notion of God as personal God in modern philosophy, he first examines some theodicies and defenses, and therefore, he calls into question both the design of the problem of evil and the provided answers for it in the contemporary philosophy of religion. Secondly, he attempts to analyze the concepts of “being”, “Creator”, and “creation" in Aquinas's theological approach to the problem of evil which provides him with a basis for a different answer to the problem. Accordingly, he basically does not consider the problem of evil as a problem for theism, but also he knows it epistemological doubt that its answer will come in the traditional theology. In this article, we have tried to investigate how Davies uses the theological approach of Aquinas to cope with the contemporary formulation the problem of evil and if his attempt is successful.
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