Omnipotence And Evil

Those who believe in God have always been obsessed by the problem of evil. On the basis of Whitehead's process philosophy, process theodicy provides a modern way to solve the problem of evil. In this paper, the author attempts to wholely demonstrate process theodicy and to research its advantages and disadvantages. The paper consists of three parts. Chapter 1 is focused on the basic concepts of Whitehead's process philosophy and the concept of God and "Creatio ex Chaos" in process theology. Chapter 2 is dedicated to Griffin's demenstration of process theodicy. Based on process philosophy, Griffin first modified traditional concept of omnipotence and limited God's power strictly, and endowed individuals with the power of self-determination. Therefore the possibility of evil is proved. Through introducing the metaphysical principle of value and power, Griffin shows that God's creation is a risky process in which creatures, as well as God, have to suffer tremendous evils for the sake of great goods. And thus he proved the necessity of so many evils' existence. In the third chapter, the author criticises process theodicy by absorbing some scholars' opinions selectively. The criticism stresses on three points: the restricted power of God and the problem of worship, the concept of God as asthetic creteria and God's holy goodness, and the correlation between good and evil and elitism. In the end, the author concludes that process theodicy does not provide us with a "plausible" approach to solve the problem of evil.