John C. Peckham’s, “Theodicy of Love,” is an incredible book on theodicy that is both down-to-earth, yet deeply philosophical, theological, biblical, and engaging. While I am not in full agreement with where he fully ends up (a loving God amidst celestial beings such as angels and demons who can stop evil but chooses not to, due primarily because of covenantal rules of engagement, as opposed to Thomas Oord’s view of essential kenosis, which states God can’t unilaterally stop evil due to His uncontrolling, loving nature), I am fully on board with his emphasis on God as love and creaturely free will necessary for love. At the end of the day, Peckham’s book is a must read on the topic of God’s relation to suffering and evil in the world. I highly recommend it!

This is a very good explanation of why God might not just allow evil, but allow the evil that we see in the world today. Peckham argues for God being omnipotent and omniscience and for the free will of created persons, both spiritual beings and material beings. Front these two arguments he then goes on to show a way that both can exist, and explain why evil exists and God does not eliminate all evil, the way he calls a Theodicy of Love.

Peckham argues succinctly the God acts in a loving way even when we do not see how what is happening could possibly be loving. He dialogues well with those who hold differing opinions, and at the end of the book states that even though he believes his opinion is correct we must hold our views humbly and loosely because we are not all knowing and we do not have all of the details.