"Theodicy Is Atheism"

According to Gabriel Marcel, "Theodicy is atheism." By this claim, Marcel calls on us to view God as a mystery of reality, one in which we are, by our own existence, involved, and not a mere object to be problematized and manipulated in a syllogistic way. On this view, God is not objectified as a thing out there, an object. Instead, He is a person, one with whom we participate in our existence. We stand in "I-Thou relations" to God. We see by our existence His presence and we accept that it is not a problem we will solve or an existence we will ever fully understand. We must live with the mystery.

This being said, I suppose I am, on Marcel’s view, an atheist. I have to admit this is a bit upsetting! I come to philosophy in the desire to understand God better and to help others understand God better. I believe that we can speak objectively about God without objectifying God or treating Him as a problem to be solved. God is not the problem. The existence of evil is the problem. Theodicy helps us offer an explanation for how it is possible that the God whom we know exists might allow or permit evil to exist in this world.

I have spent a large number of hours this week, in fact, engaged with one who was once a very active and strong Christian who has lost his faith because of the problem of evil. What have I done? I have engaged in theodicy. I don’t think this makes me an atheist, not even practically speaking. I don’t think I have failed to properly grasp God’s nature and our participatory relationship with God. Rather, I think that granting all of that as the starting point, I still have to think about how such a God could permit evil and offer reasons that might be helpful to others. That’s all. 

So, as much as I appreciate Marcel and what he offers to a realist epistemology via an existentialist and Thomistic approach, his clearly provocative approach in this statement, just goes too far for me.