I just came across this passage in an interview with famed African novelist Chinua Achebe. He was raised by Christian converts but has--artistically at least--reverted to his ancestral religion (he admits he doesn't really think about it because he doesn't think anyone can know). I think this comment, though, is a nice instance of the main point behind the Irenaean Theodicy.
"I believe now that what we have to do is make our passage through life as meaningful and as useful as possible, I think our contribution to the creation of the world is important, and I take my bearing in this from a creation story of the Igbo people in which there is a conversation between God and humanity. They are discussing the state of the environment -- what to do to lift man from the state of wandering, the state of animals, to becoming human, i.e., agricultural. And this is embedded in a story, a parable. Man is sitting disconsolate on an anthill one morning. God asks him what the matter is and man replies that the soil is too swampy for the cultivation of the yams which God has directed him to grow. God tells him to bring in a blacksmith to dry the soil with his bellows. The contribution of humanity to this creation is so important. God could have made the world perfect if he had wanted. But he made it the way it is. So that there is a constant need for us to discuss and cooperate to make it more habitable, so the soil can yield, you see."
From the Fall 1991 issue of Conjunctions.