In order to be a successful theodicy, the purposes stated must be wholly consistent with the notion that God is all-loving, if at the same time also all-knowing and all-powerful. So what is called for is an explanation of the purposes that a loving God with such power and knowledge might have in permitting evil to exist. Many proposed theodicies exist; none is accepted by every faith; none, in fact, is accepted by all members of any one given faith.
Theodicy is unnecessary if one rejects the view that God is omnipotent. In Unitarian-Universalism, in much of Conservative and Reform Judaism, and in some liberal wings of Protestant Christianity, God is said to act in the world through persuasion, and not by coercion. God makes Himself manifest in the world through inspiration and the creation of possibility, and not by miracles or violations of the laws of nature. In short, in order to guarantee that humanity has free will, God is not omnipotent. The most popular works espousing this point are from Harold Kushner (in Judaism). This is the view that also was developed independently by [Albert North Whitehead]?? and [Charles Hartshorne]??, in the theological system known as process theology.
The word is taken from the title of a work that supplied one theodicy, namely that this is [The Best of All Possible Worlds]?: the Theodicee? by Gottfried Leibniz.
See also the problem of evil.