How to Think About Providential Agency
Is it possible to speak of God acting
providentially in the life of a particular person or community? In an account
based on the Christian tradition this means also considering the question of
miracle and what is for Christians the most central of actions, the resurrection of Jesus.
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The first precept to note is that
particular divine action cannot be discernible as such by naturalistic analysis
of the world. This is axiomatic from the point of view of science, because such descriptions are necessarily in terms of
natural systems and regularities, related at some level to the experimentally
testable. Supernatural agency is methodologically excluded as an explanation of
such data. It is also axiomatic from the point of view of theology - divine disclosure always invites the response of faith, it does not demand the
response of acceptance, since that would vitiate the importance of faith. The
resurrection of Jesus is a prime example - the Risen Lord appeared only to
believers.
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A second point to note is that our
experience of personal agency is of
two types:
However, it is important to stress that science
can as yet give no clear account of what these two sorts of intentionality in
humans involve. So human agency is a very imprecise basis for analogies to God’s action. Nevertheless it remains
the best basis we have.
There is a whole range of different
theories as to how God might be able to act in a world which can also be
understood in turns of law and chance, interacting according to the principles
of science. The best recent classification of theories of divine action is by
Thomas Tracy.
Email
link | Feedback | Contributed by: Dr.
Christopher Southgate
Source: God, Humanity and the
Cosmos (T&T Clark, 1999)
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