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

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……