What are the key features of Irenaeus’ theodicy?
...ove and spirituality, which in turn will lead us closer to the likeness of God. This uses another key idea that we all start at a distance from God and progress towards an ultimate state of perfection with Him. Irenaeus’ idea of moral evil continues throughout his theodicy and he says that human beings perform moral evil because they have free will. Irenaeus says that this free will came from God because he wanted us to learn through hardship and temptation. Irenaeus also argues that the good which comes about as a result of the gradual overcoming of evil by free will is better than if God were to have created everything perfect in the first place and that the good in the end will outweigh the evil resulting from free will. The idea of free will is also good because it attributes evil to humans rather than to God. Another key concept Irenaeus brings out, is that even if God could have made us free but only free to do good, it is better that he gave us only complete free will which involves the capacity to do moral evil. For example, you could say that you can’t have a painting wit...