Within the Christian tradition a variety of attempts have been made to resolve this apparent contradiction. These different ‘solutions’ are sometimes represented as forming part of one of two families of explanation, which have become labelled the Augustinian and the Irenaean (3.2).4 Within these families, a home may be found for such disparate responses to the problem of evil as the ‘principle of plenitude’ (3.3), ‘evil as non-being’ (3.4), the ‘free will defence’—a defence that has been applied