While the problem of evil and suffering (the theodicy problem) continues to be discussed in the philosophy of religion, our project will go far beyond the received understanding of this debate by emphasizing the extremely broad relevance of the theodicy issue. By extrapolation, a “theodicist” logic is identifiable and critically analyzable across a wide range of nonreligious and nontheological contexts – in political decision-making, administration, media and social media discussions, literature and the arts, and various social practices and institutions. Theodicist patterns of thought attempt to render other human beings' suffering justified, excusable, or meaningful in terms of some "general good" (“common good”) it may serve, instrumentalizing suffering in the service of real or imagined overall goodness. We will develop, e.g., pragmatist tools for a thoroughgoing antitheodicist critique of secular theodicies, also analyzing (social) media and literary examples of (anti)theodicy.

2024

2028