THEODICY (Gr. Theos, God, and diki, justice; Lat. Iheodicaa, the judgment of God), aname given to the exposition of the theory of Divine Providence, with a view espe cially to the vindication of the attributes, and particularly of the sanctity and justice of God in establishing the present order of things, in which evil, moral as well as physical, so largely appears to prevails. The name is of modern origin, dating from the close of the 17th c., or the beginning of the 18th c.; but the theory itself, as well as the mysterious problem which it meant to resolve, is as old as philosophy itself. See EVIL. The first to consider the question in its integrity was the celebrated Leibnitz (q.v.). His work entitled Essals de our la Bonte de Dieu, la Liberte de l' Homme, et l' Origine du was published in It rose at once to the very highest point of popularity, and was translated into almost every European language. The leading principle of Leib nitz's vindication of God's goodness is the well-known optimistic theory which has been explained elsewhere (see OPTIMISM); but he had been followed by several writers in dif ferent countries—as Balguy, Werdennann, Kindervater, Creutzer, Benedict Kapp, and many others. Of these venters, it may be said in general, that they have followed the same method, and have addressed themselves to the same view—viz., the reconciliation
with the goodness. the sanctity, and the justice of the one God, the existence of those manifold evils, physical or material, as well as moral, which appear in the present order of things. This view, it will be seen, in strictly limited to one single problem. But in the discussions of the new philosophic systems, and especially that of Hegel, which have arisen in Germany, new difficulties regarding the Christian idea of God have arisen out of the rationalistic notions of existence in general. To meet those difficulties, a new theodicy has become necessary, and it has begun to occupy the attention of philosophers, especially in France. Two works in particular addressed to this view of the subject may be noticed; the first is M. Maret's Christian, Theodiege, or Comparison of the Chris tian. and the Rationalistic idea of God, 1845; the second is that of the Jesuit philosopher, Pere Gratry, who has devoted the first volume of his course of philosophy, De la Con naissance de Diea, to this special subject. This work was published at Paris, 1853.