Getting Started

In this part of the workshop, you will continue to work in your group. Each week you will meet with your assigned group to prepare for the Workshop Five PowerPoint project that you will submit as a group in connection with Chapters 5 and 6 of your textbook, A Christian Philosophical Journey.

This week you will continue an external group dialog on the philosophy of religion, which involves the problem of the origin and existence of evil, or what is sometimes called hamartiology. This dialog will continue to be shared in parts each week in your group until the compilation of your final PowerPoint presentation.

Upon successful completion of this discussion, you will be able to:

· Explore the relationship between good and evil in philosophy, based on a Christian perspective.

Resources

· Textbook: A Christian Philosophical Journey

· A Standard Translation of the Bible as noted in the syllabus.

Background Information

This activity will help you become accustomed to working with others on philosophical questions, and will introduce the importance of a worldview perspective, as well as one of the most important paradigms in the philosophy of religion.

Instructions

1. Review the rubric to make sure you understand the criteria for earning your grade.

2. In your textbook, A Christian Philosophical Journey, review Chapter 6, “The Problem of Evil.”

3. Using the Group Discussion Forum, continue working on your group PowerPoint project by posting your logical conclusions about the title and content of Chapter 6 in your textbook. From your reading and your best analysis of arguments and proposals in the textbook, respond to these questions:

a. Is it useful to have a personal theodicy concerning evil?

b. How do you explain God’s will in spite of evil (especially in a Wesleyan-Arminian worldview)?

c. Is God bound by evil, or is evil limited by God?

d. How can you best state your belief in the all-encompassing attributes of God, while dealing with the fact that God Himself “allows” evil to exist (at least for now)?

e.

Do humans contribute to the reality of evil? In what way are we torn between our God-given purpose at creation and our performance after creation?