Rethinking the concept of God and the problem of evil from the perspective of African thought
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Date
2022-07-04
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Cambridge University Press
Abstract
In this article, I show that: (1) There is a transcendence strain in African Traditional Religion (ATR) and traditional African thought that agrees perfectly with traditional monotheism and legitimizes the question of the relation of God with evil in the world. (2) There is incontrovertible evidence of the
conception of God as a limited deity that subverts the categories of omnipotence and omniscience. (3) African philosophers of religion must show how a transcendent or, conversely, a limited God is related to the evil that exists in the world, since the overwhelming stance of ATR is that God is the creator of the world and wields effective power. I substitute the categories of omnipotence and omniscience with the novel categories of power and glory and argue that while a powerful and glorious God is not the author of evil and cannot eliminate evil in the world, such a God can be conceived as working to
reduce the evil in the world through the instrumentality of human moral agency.
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Keywords
African Philosophy, Evil, Glory, God, Mood, Omnipotence, Omniscience, Power
Citation
Agada A (2023). Rethinking the concept of God and the problem of evil from the perspective of African thought. Religious Studies 59, 294–310. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0034412522000294