Avicenna’s Theodicy and al-Rāzī’s Anti-Theodicy

Shihadeh, Ayman

Abstract

Avicenna’s Neoplatonic account of divine providence and theodicy was hugely influential on later philosophical and religious thought in the Islamic world. However, it was severely criticised by one of his earlier commentators, the theologian-philosopher Faḫr al-Dīn al-Rāzī (d. 606/1210). While Avicenna champions an optimist theodicean thesis of a plenitude of good to support the theory of providence integrated into his cosmogony, his commentator counters by arguing for a plenitude of evil and an overall pessimist anti-theodicy. Rejecting Avicenna’s ontological-cum-cosmological account of evil, al-Rāzī argues that a theodicy must be strictly subject-centred and is ultimately a futile exercise. This article includes a study and translation of the relevant section in his commentary on Avicenna’s al-Išārāt wa-l-tanbīhāt (Pointers and Reminders).

Citation

Shihadeh, A. (2019). Avicenna’s Theodicy and al-Rāzī’s Anti-Theodicy. Intellectual History of the Islamicate World, 7(1), 61-84. https://doi.org/10.1163/2212943X-00701004

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Apr 28, 2017
• Online Publication Date: Jan 1, 2019
• Publication Date: Jan 1, 2019
• Deposit Date: Jun 16, 2017
• Publicly Available Date: Jun 16, 2017
• Journal: Intellectual History of the Islamicate World
• Print ISSN: 2212-9421
• Electronic ISSN: 2212-943X
• Publisher: Brill Academic Publishers
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 7
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 61-84
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/2212943X-00701004
• Keywords: Faḫr al-Dīn al-Rāzī; Avicenna (Ibn Sīnā); Šarḥ al-Išārāt wa-l-tanbīhāt (Commentary on the Pointers and Reminders); Neoplatonism; theodicy; anti-theodicy; providence; problem of evil; pessimism; pain