Philosophy & ThoughtGreek → English
Theodicy
/θiːˈɒdɪsi/noun
An argument defending the goodness of God against the fact of evil and suffering in the world.
The Greek roots
θεός
theós
god
δίκη
díkē
justice, judgement
Literally: “justice of God”
The story of the word
Leibniz made the word in 1710 for his Essais de Théodicée, in which he argued this is the best of all possible worlds. Voltaire spent Candide demolishing that claim, with the Lisbon earthquake of 1755 as his evidence. δίκη was both justice and the lawsuit that pursued it, so a theodicy is literally God's case for the defence.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → French → English
- First recorded
- 18th century
Same family
theologysyndicateapotheosis
In a sentence
No theodicy she had read survived the children's ward.