Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz

Life

Leibniz was born in 1646 in Leipzig, Saxony. His father was a professor of moral philosophy at the University of Leipzig, and the family was Lutheran. He studied philosophy and law at the University of Leipzig and received a doctorate in law from the University of Altdorf in 1667. He then served as a diplomat for the Elector of Mainz, residing in Paris from 1672 to 1676. From 1676 until his death, he served the House of Brunswick-Lüneburg in Hanover as librarian and court counselor. In 1700 he became the first president of the newly founded Academy of Sciences in Berlin. He died in Hanover in 1716.

Work and Achievements

Leibniz was a lay scholar rather than a member of the clergy. He was active in many fields, including philosophy, mathematics, law, and history, and in mathematics he is known for having developed calculus independently of Newton.

His principal theological work is the Theodicy, published in French in 1710. The term "theodicy" combines the Greek words for "God" (theos) and "justice" (dike). It refers to arguments defending the goodness and justice of God despite the existence of evil and suffering in the world, and Leibniz is generally credited with coining the term. He held that an omnipotent and good God, choosing among many possible worlds, created "the best of all possible worlds." He argued that the evil in the world is permitted within an overall order that brings about a greater good. In the Monadology, written in 1714, he held that the world is composed of "monads," indivisible spiritual units. He also advanced the doctrine of "pre-established harmony," according to which God ordained the harmony among the monads from the beginning.

Leibniz was also concerned with church unity. In correspondence with the French Catholic bishop Bossuet and others, he discussed the reunion of the Roman Catholic Church and Protestantism, and he also explored proposals for union between the Lutheran and Reformed churches. None of these efforts succeeded.

Influence on the Korean Church

Leibniz did not directly influence the Korean church. However, the term "theodicy," derived from the title of his book, is used in Korean theological circles and churches when addressing the problem of suffering and evil. In seminary courses on systematic theology and in Christian apologetics literature, his "best possible world" argument is presented as a classic theory. It is also often mentioned in discussions of the relationship between God's providence and suffering.

Assessment

Leibniz is regarded as a leading early modern thinker who sought to harmonize reason and faith. He has, however, drawn considerable criticism. Following the Lisbon earthquake of 1755, Voltaire satirized in his novel Candide (1759) the optimism of the claim that "this world is the best of all possible worlds." In a 1791 essay, Kant concluded that all attempts at a philosophical theodicy had failed.

Opinion is divided within theology as well. Some regard his argument as a serious attempt to defend God's goodness by means of reason. By contrast, some in the Reformed tradition criticize him for binding God's sovereign freedom to principles of reason and for attempting to resolve the problem of evil through philosophical reasoning rather than biblical revelation. Others, pointing to biblical texts such as the Book of Job that never fully explain the reasons for suffering, hold that theodicy itself should be approached with caution.