The Threshold of Victory: Theodicy and Relief in the Theology of John Paul II

Abstract

The Twentieth Century provided the religious and irreligious alike with tremendous challenges in regards to belief. Evil and carnage were pervasive and the Church was in decline. In that cultural moment rose an interpreter of that challenge who theodicy was clear and efficient in answering the complex challenge of evil in the modern world. John Paul II, more than almost any other figure of the age, addressed the vexing issue of evil in the modern world. In the corpus of his writing mankind comes to know evil through an act of memory, remembering from where evil sprang, and what evil has done in man to separate him from his creator. And mankind comes to terms with identity of evil as seen and experienced through the act of suffering. Through processing memory, and examining identity, mankind can discover how Jesus Christ’s work on Calvary places us at the threshold of victory.