I develop a new theodicy in defense of Anselmian theism, one that has several advantages over traditional and recent replies to the Problem of Evil. To make my case, I first explain the value of a positive trajectory : a forward-in-time decrease in ‘first-order-gratuitous’ evil: evil that is not necessary for any equal-or-greater first -order good, but may be necessary for a higher-order good, such as the good of strongly positive axiological trajectory. Positive trajectory arguably contributes goodness to a world in proportion to the magnitude of this trajectory, and worlds that contain first-order-gratuitous evil thereby have the potential to contain a strongly positive trajectory. This would arguably explain why God would permit first-order-gratuitous evils: he may be indifferent between a world with no first-order-gratuitous evil (and thus a flat trajectory) and a world with some first-order-gratuitous evil but a strongly positive trajectory. Next, I answer the most salient objections to this theodicy. Finally, I explain how this theodicy is superior to some common theodicies.

中文翻译：

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价值论-轨迹神学

我开发了一种新的神学来捍卫 Anselmian 有神论，与传统和最近对邪恶问题的回答相比，它有几个优点。为了证明我的情况，我首先解释了积极轨迹的价值：“一阶无偿”邪恶的时间向前减少：邪恶对于任何相等或更大的一阶善是不必要的，但是对于更高阶的善，例如强正价值学轨迹的善，可能是必要的。可以说，正轨迹对世界的贡献与该轨迹的大小成正比，因此包含一阶无端邪恶的世界有可能包含强正轨迹。这可以解释为什么上帝会允许一阶无缘无故的邪恶：他可能对一个没有一阶无端邪恶（因此是平坦轨迹）的世界和一个有一些一阶无端邪恶但具有强正轨迹的世界漠不关心。接下来，我将回答对这一神正论最明显的反对意见。最后，我解释了这种神学如何优于一些常见的神学。