Date
9-17-2026
Department
Rawlings School of Divinity
Degree
Master of Arts in Christian Apologetics (MA)
Chair
Robert Talley
Keywords
Problem of evil, Heidegger, metaphysics, ontology, being, logos, greatness, existentialism, phenomenology, philosophy, apologetics, maximalness, theology
Disciplines
Philosophy | Practical Theology
Recommended Citation
Blea, William A., "A New Understanding of the Tension between Evil and Divine Greatness: An Application of Existential Ontology to Christian Apologetics" (2026). Masters Theses. 1547.
https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/masters/1547
Abstract
This thesis is an examination of the potential integration of existential ontology into classical Christian apologetics. Pulling from philosophers like Nietache, Kierkegaard, and Heidegger to construct a framework that understands greatness as the overcoming of a being's context and evil as the relational, moral, and cosmic opposition to the order established by the divine Logos. This framework then allows for an identification of Christus Victor as God’s decisive response to evil. This thesis argues that a properly integrated framework may work to collapse the problem of evil from its metaphysical foundation: the contradiction between God's greatness and the existence of evil in the world.
