of the Jews and the story of cosmic creation contained in the Torah. They regarded this God as inferior for allowing his creation to be imperfect and negative events to occur. Western Roman Catholic philosophers (such as Augustine, Anselm of Canterbury, and Thomas Aquinas) have attempted to develop theodicies for the Judeo-Christian God. The Church taught (against the Gnostics) that the cosmos is fallen not because God created it dysfunctional, but because humanity misused their freedom to love and chose a path separating them from God by idolatrously proclaiming their self-sufficiency. When humanity made this choice, it is taught in Eastern patristics, all of reality, i.e. every sphere of human experience, "fell" and was corrupted. The Eastern Orthodox understanding of creation stands in radical contrast to the fatalist approach to sin as taught by the Gnostics and later by strict Augustinians. God created sarx ("the flesh") as a provision for humanity, as led by the Spirit of God, to remedy its fallen state by using the time on earth to seek and reconcile with God, even as our common sarx separates us from Him. Eastern Orthodox authors see theodicy as an exclusively Western preoccupation. Pavel Florensky in The Pillar and Ground of the Truth: An Essay in Orthodox Theodicy in Twelve Letters; Archbishop Stylianos in Theodicy and Eschatology: A Fundamental Orthodox Viewpoint in Theodicy and Eschatology (Australian Theological Forum Press 2005 ); Tsunami and Theodicy by David B. Hart, an Eastern Orthodox theologian and author of The Beauty of the Infinite; "The Lady and the Wench": A Practical Theodicy in Russian Literature by Paul Valliere; and with regard to one of the Fathers of the Church Irenaeus' Theodicy. Sin The Eastern Orthodox approach to sin, and how it is dealt with, shuns perceived Western "legalism." Following rules strictly without the heart "being in it" does not help a believer with his salvation. Sin is not fundamentally about transgressing a Divine law; rather, it stands for any behavior which "misses the mark," that is, fails to live up to the higher goal of conforming to God's nature, which is love. Thus, in the Eastern Orthodox tradition sin is not viewed primarily as a guilty stain on the soul that needs to be wiped out, but rather as a pervading sickness or a failure to achieve the goal of a truly human life, fulfilling one's Divine design and function as the created