American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth
Edition - n. A vindication of God's goodness and justice in the
face of the existence of evil. Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. An exposition of the theory of divine Providence with a
view to the vindication of the attributes, particularly of the
holiness and justice, of God, in establishing the present order
of things, in which evil, moral as well as physical, largely
exists. The word in this sense was used by Leibnitz in a series
of essays, in which he maintained that metaphysical evil is
necessary to moral beings, that physical evil is a means of a
greater good, and that moral evil was permitted by God as
necessary to the best possible world, as a set-off to moral
good, which it increases by contrast. - n. A justification of a
deity, or the attributes of a deity, especially in regard to the
existence of evil and suffering in the world; a work or
discourse justifying the ways of God. GNU Webster's 1913 - n. A
vindication of the justice of G