I. DEFINITION OF THEODICY
It is generally agreed that the term “theodicy” (in
French théodicée), formed from two Greek words, Θεός
(“God”) and δίκη (“justice”), was devised by Leibniz
late in the seventeenth century. From his youth Leibniz
had habitually used the phrase “the justice of God”
in discussing the problem of evil, but the term
“theodicy” appears late in the 1690's. Having been
trained in the law, Leibniz regarded theology itself as
the highest form of jurisprudence, and consequently
treated the problem of God's relation to the evils of
the world after the analogy of a case at court. It was
the widespread popularity of his Essais de théodicée
... (1710, hereafter referred to as Theodicy) which
brought the term into general use.
Theodicy in its narrow sense is thus the defense of
God, the supreme creator, ruler, and judge of the
universe, against charges brought about by a consid-
eration of both moral and natural evil. Leibniz himself
exemplified this meaning in a short treatise written as
a quasi-legal brief, and published independently in the
same year as the Theodicy: The Cause of God argued
in Terms of His Justice (Causa Dei asserta per justitiam
eius).
Linked to this meaning, however, is a second one—
the philosophical study of the compatibility of evil with
the idea of God. Thus Leibniz, writing to Des Bosses
(Feb. 5, 1712; trans. Loemker, p. 601), defined theodicy
as “a kind of science, as it were, namely the doctrine
of the justice of God—that is, of his wisdom together
with his goodness.” A theodicy in this sense should
examine the interrelationships of three concepts: the
nature of God and his providence, the nature of evil,
and the meaning of justice.
Since these concepts require further presuppositions
as broad as the field of natural theology itself, a third,
broader meaning of theodicy has arisen; it has become
a synonym for philosophical theology. Grounds for this
use of the term may also be found in Leibniz himself,
since his Theodicy, the only inclusive philosophical
work which he published during his lifetime (1646-
1716), contained wide perspectives on his whole system
of thought. Christian Wolff established this wider use
of the term, and the Scholastic tradition has generally
followed it. In the reform of the French educational
system carried through in the early nineteenth century,
the year course in philosophy of the Lycée was divided
into four sections: psychology, logic, morals, and
theodicy (or natural theology). This usage is retained
in P. Janet and G. Seailles, L'Histoire de la philosophie:
les problèmes et les écoles (Paris, 1887; II, Part iv).
