Ellis, George F. R. “Ordinary and Extraordinary Divine Action: The Nexus of Interaction.”
In “Ordinary and
Extraordinary Divine Action,” George Ellis intends to elaborate the conclusions
reached by Tracy, Murphy, and others concerning the role of quantum
indeterminacy in a contemporary understanding of divine action. He claims that
some account of special divine
action is necessary if the Christian tradition is to make sense. However, there
are two important constraints to be reckoned with. One is that an ideal account
of divine action must not conflict with a scientific understanding of nature;
the other is that some explanation must be given of why a God capable of
special action would not exercise that ability regularly to oppose evil and
ameliorate suffering.
Ellis’ analysis focuses on
the nature of bottom-up and top-down causation in hierarchical systems. It is
predicated upon the assumption that chaotic dynamics does not provide the
required openness in physical systems. Furthermore, his analysis of top-down
causation convinces him that this concept alone does not provide for an
adequate account of divine action. He distinguishes between generic top- down
causation, in which boundary conditions produce a global effect upon all the
entities in a system, and specific top-down causation, which involves local
interactions with elements of the lower-level system. Special divine actions
would seem to entail the latter. However, specific top-down causation seems to
require, in turn, that there be an intrinsic openness or indeterminacy at the
very lowest level of the hierarchy of complexity. Thus, a study of the
possibilities for divine action via top-down causation leads inevitably to a
consideration of divine action at the quantum level.
Ellis takes God’s action to
be largely through the ordinary
created processes. God initiates the laws of physics, establishes the initial
conditions for the universe, and sustains the universe and its processes, which
in turn result in the emergence of higher levels of order, including, finally,
free human beings. Special divine action focuses on providing to human beings
intimations of God’s will for their social lives. Thus, the problem of the mode
of divine action is largely a question of how God might communicate directly
with those who are open to revelation. Ellis speculates that quantum events in
the brain (directed by God) might be amplified to produce revelatory thoughts,
images, and emotions. If it is supposed that God has adequate reason to
restrict divine action to a combination of ordinary action (in and through
natural processes) and revelation (such as the Resurrection of Christ) then the
problem of evil does not take on the same dimensions as it does when it is
assumed that God might freely intervene in any sort of process at any time.
Finally, Ellis addresses the
question of support for his view. He claims that while individual moves made in
the paper (such as the focus on divine action at the quantum level) may not
appear to be justified, the combined constraints imposed by the need to make
sense of the Christian tradition and by science actually limit the possible
acceptable positions quite severely; thus, the view herein presented is, in
Ellis’ opinion, highly credible relative to the broad range of data.
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