*noun*; from
Greek, θεός {
god} + δίκαιον (justice).
Literally, "the justice of
God." Specifically, the attempt to explain
God's ways to mortals.
The term was used by Gottfried Leibniz for his book {Théodicée} explaining how an omnipotent and benevolent
God could allow suffering in the
universe. Leibniz took the approach that this was the "best of all possible worlds," meaning that
God could not have made this world better in any one respect, without making it worse in others.
In 1759, Voltaire published the novel *Candide* which was essentially a very long satire of Leibniz' views. The character of Dr. Pangloss is based on Leibniz, although it has been argued that Voltaire misrepresented Leibniz' views.
In common usage, the term *theodicy* refers to any defense of a thing based on the claim that whatever that thing does is the best possible. The obvious example is neoclassical economics, which insists that whatever outcome achieved by "the market," it is the best one that could possibly exist. It's a fallacy because it uses circular reasoning, and it is unfalsifiable.
Privileged and successful groups need religion for a very different purpose, namely legitimation. Their members are convinced that they deserve their
good fortune and that the poor deserve their misfortune. {Max} Weber calls this the "theodicy of good fortune"...
Anthony Waterman in 2002 put forward the suggestion that Smith could be read as offering a kind of Augustinian theodicy of the market. According to him, Smith's idea could be interpreted as thus: just
like God put governments in place to restrain sin, the institution of the market also restrains sin.
Nimi Wariboko, *
God and Money: A Theology of Money in a Globalizing World* (2008)
