The treatment of the problem of evil by certain personalists.

Abstract

This thesis has been concerned with the treatment of evil by three outstanding personalists, Bowne, Knudson, and Brightman; all of whom have taught at Boston University during the past three-quarters of a century. Theistic, idealistic personalism was chosen as the philosophical position from which to consider the problem of evil for both religious and metaphysical reasons. Obviously, evil is primarily a religious problem, and must be squarely faced in any religious orientation to life. Besides its religious significance, evil, particularly natural evil, has important metaphysical repercussions for personalists in the light of the fact that, for them, the physical world is the direct result of God's energizing or creativity. Thus, God is directly responsible for these evils; and, consequently, the personalist is behooved to determine, if possible, the answer to this apparent paradox of God directly willing such evils as cancer, idiocy, and all the catastrophies of nature. [TRUNCATED]