Editing Problem of evil (section)

===Process theodicy===
"Process theodicy reframes the debate on the problem of evil" by acknowledging that, since God "has no monopoly on power, creativity, and [[self-determination]]", God's power and ability to influence events are, of necessity, limited by human creatures with wills of their own.<ref name="Mark S. M. Scott">{{cite book|title=Pathways in Theodicy: An Introduction to the Problem of Evil|last=Scott|first=Mark. S. M.| year=2015|publisher=Augsburg Fortress Publishers|edition=illustrated, reprint|isbn=9781451464702}}</ref>{{rp|143}} This concept of limitation is one of the key aspects of process theodicy.<ref name="Mark S. M. Scott"/>{{rp|143}} The God of process theology had all options available before actualizing the creation that exists, and chose voluntarily to create free persons knowing the limitations that would impose: he must not unilaterally intervene and coerce a certain outcome because that would violate free will.<ref name="Anderson, A. K.">{{cite thesis |last1=Anderson |first1=A. K. |title=Evil and the God of narrative: Four types of contemporary Christian theodicy |type=PhD dissertation |publisher=Graduate Theological Union |date=2005 |url=https://www.proquest.com/openview/a54181a40db33ce82b8c1818e74340a2/1 |id={{ProQuest|3196560}} }}</ref>{{rp|93}} God's will is only one factor in any situation, making that will "variable in effectiveness", because all God can do is try to persuade and influence the person in the best direction, and make sure that possibility is available.<ref name="Anderson, A. K."/>{{rp|98–100}} Through knowledge of all possibilities, this God provides "ideal aims to help overcome [evil] in light of (a) the evil that has been suffered and (b) the range of good possibilities allowed by that past".<ref name="Anderson, A. K."/>{{rp|93}}

Process theology's second key element is its stressing of the "here and now" presence of God. God becomes the Great Companion and Fellow-Sufferer where the future is realized hand-in-hand with the sufferer.<ref name="Mark S. M. Scott"/>{{rp|143}} The God of process theology is a benevolent Providence that feels a person's pain and suffering.<ref name="Anderson, A. K."/>{{rp|93}} According to [[Wendy Farley]], "God labors in every situation to mediate the power of compassion to suffering" by enlisting free persons as mediators of that compassion.<ref name="Wendy Farley">{{cite book |last1=Farley |first1=Wendy |title=Tragic Vision and Divine Compassion A Contemporary Theodicy |date=1990 |publisher=Westminster/John Knox Press |isbn=9780664250966|page=118}}</ref> Freedom and power are shared, therefore, responsibility must be as well. Griffin quotes John Hick as noting that "the stirring summons to engage on God's side in the never-ending struggle against the evils of an intractable world" is another key characteristic of process theology.<ref name="Griffin Revisited">{{cite book |last1=Griffin |first1=David Ray |title=Evil Revisited Responses and Reconsiderations |date=1991 |publisher=State University of New York Press |isbn=9780791406120|pages=169–179}}</ref>

==== Critique ====
A hallmark of process theodicy is its conception of God as persuasive rather than coercive.<ref name="Nancy Frankenberry">{{cite journal |last1=Frankenberry |first1=Nancy |title=Some Problems in Process Theodicy |journal=Religious Studies |date=June 1981 |volume=17 |issue=2 |pages=179–197 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/20005735 |publisher=Cambridge University Press|doi=10.1017/S0034412500000962 |jstor=20005735 |s2cid=170658129 |url-access=subscription }}</ref>{{rp|179}} [[Nancy Frankenberry]] asserts that this creates an either-or dichotomy – either God is persuasive or coercive – whereas lived experience has an "irreducible ambiguity" where it seems God can be both.<ref name="Nancy Frankenberry"/>{{rp|180–181}}

Since the 1940s, process theodicy has also been "dogged by the problem of 'religious adequacy' of its concept of God" and doubts about the 'goodness' of its view of God.<ref name="Nancy Frankenberry"/>{{rp|186}} It has not resolved all the old questions concerning the problem of evil,<ref>{{cite book |last1=Griffin |first1=David Ray |title=God, Power, and Evil A Process Theodicy |date=2004 |publisher=Presbyterian Publishing Corporation |isbn=9780664229061 |pages=300, 308}}</ref> while it has raised new ones concerning "the nature of divine power, the meaning of God's goodness, and the realistic assessment of what we may reasonably hope for by way of creative advance".<ref name="Nancy Frankenberry"/>{{rp|196}}