The problem of evil concerns whether the existence of an all-powerful, all-knowing, perfectly good creator is rendered unlikely (or less likely than it would otherwise be) given the horrendous evils that afflict the world. John Hick's soul-making theodicy is perhaps the best known of the attempts to provide a plausible account of the role that evils may play in the divine plan for human life. Two other important theodicies are due to Marilyn Adams and Richard Swinburne.

In "The Problem of Hell: A Problem of Evil for Christians" (1993), Marilyn Adams discusses the problem of evil from the perspective of Christian theism, acknowledging the distinctive values of Christian theism as well its dark side, "the postmortem evil of hell, in which the omnipotent creator turns effectively and finally against a creature's good" (p. 302). As a Christian philosopher, her own view is...