Abstract:
This article focuses on the role of Christian theodicy in Taras Shevchenko’s works.
With a biography marked by trauma and suffering, it is no wonder that Shevchenko
orients his poetic worldview in search of understanding the nature of evil and human
suffering. Operating through a Christological model, Shevchenko arrives at a poetics
based on theodicy, as a means of understanding suffering in the world. He analyses
the problem of evil associated with the phenomenology of suffering within the
framework of religious ethics. The works of the early period emphasize "truth and
revenge", retribution, and physical punishment over the "malicious" in the spirit of
Old Testament dogma. The period of Shevchenko’s exile and subsequent works is
characterized by changes in moods. The theodicy of Shevchenko’s works reveals the
signs of Christodicy. Shevchenko’s concept of "suffering" is theologically based, as he
believes that suffering is the key to conversion to faith.
