HOME  INTERVIEWS  RESOURCES  NEWS  ABOUT

View by:  Subject  Theme  Question  Term  Person  Event

Law, Chance and Divine Action

Law: Most accounts of divine agency within the Christian tradition are not content with God of the gaps, or with alternative strategies such as ‘God banished’ or with a God whose action is only ‘before’ the development of creation. Rather they regard God as actively sustaining the order of the physical universe, in some way or other maintaining the regularity of the cosmos. This is an important aspect of divine action, sometimes overlooked. So for example a theologian of physics such as John Polkinghorne would no longer regard the solar system as in need of ‘occasional reformation,’ as Newton did (see An Introduction to Divine action: Isaac Newton’s God), because physics no longer sees the problem he found with the stability of planetary orbits. Polkinghorne wants to assert:

a) that God continues to sustain the laws which govern the equations by which the planets move.

b) that God uses the interplay of law and chance to generate novel possibilities within the creation.As for example in Polkinghorne, J, Science and Providence (London: SPCK, 1989) pp38-40. There Polkinghorne uses the term ‘necessity’ to cover the implications of physical law.

Those scientist-theologians who wish to defend a theistic account are quite prepared to acknowledge the existence of chance, indeed to see it as a positive ingredient in an unfolding creation. Polkinghorne says: ‘The rôle of chance can be seen as a signal of the Creator’s allowing his creation to make itself.’Polkinghorne, J, Scientists as Theologians (London: SPCK, 1996) p47D.J.Bartholomew in his major study God and Chance wrote that ‘chance offers the potential Creator many advantages which it is difficult to envisage being obtained in any other way.’Bartholomew, D, God and Chance (London: SCM Press, 1984) p97

Click on different understandings of chance to understand the significance of this concept.

Email link | Feedback | Contributed by: Dr. Christopher Southgate
Source: God, Humanity and the Cosmos  (T&T Clark, 1999)

Topic Sets Available

AAAS Report on Stem-Cells

AstroTheology: Religious Reflections on Extraterrestrial Life Forms

Agency: Human, Robotic and Divine
Becoming Human: Brain, Mind, Emergence
Big Bang Cosmology and Theology (GHC)
Cosmic Questions Interviews

Cosmos and Creator
Creativity, Spirituality and Computing Technologies
CTNS Content Home
Darwin: A Friend to Religion?
Demystifying Information Technology
Divine Action (GHC)
Dreams and Dreaming: Neuroscientific and Religious Visions'
E. Coli at the No Free Lunchroom
Engaging Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence: An Adventure in Astro-Ethics
Evangelical Atheism: a response to Richard Dawkins
Ecology and Christian Theology
Evolution: What Should We Teach Our Children in Our Schools?
Evolution and Providence
Evolution and Creation Survey
Evolution and Theology (GHC)
Evolution, Creation, and Semiotics

The Expelled Controversy
Faith and Reason: An Introduction
Faith in the Future: Religion, Aging, and Healthcare in the 21st Century

Francisco Ayala on Evolution

From Christian Passions to Scientific Emotions
Genetic Engineering and Food

Genetics and Ethics
Genetic Technologies - the Radical Revision of Human Existence and the Natural World

Genomics, Nanotechnology and Robotics
Getting Mind out of Meat
God and Creation: Jewish, Christian, and Muslim Perspectives on Big Bang Cosmology
God, Humanity and the Cosmos: A Textbook in Science and Religion
God the Spirit - and Natural Science
Historical Examples of the Science and Religion Debate (GHC)
History of Creationism
Intelligent Design Coming Clean

Issues for the Millennium: Cloning and Genetic Technologies
Jean Vanier of L'Arche
Nano-Technology and Nano-ethics
Natural Science and Christian Theology - A Select Bibliography
Neuroscience and the Soul
Outlines of the Science and Religion Debate (GHC)

Perspectives on Evolution

Physics and Theology
Quantum Mechanics and Theology (GHC)
Questions that Shape Our Future
Reductionism (GHC)
Reintroducing Teleology Into Science
Science and Suffering

Scientific Perspectives on Divine Action (CTNS/Vatican Series)

Space Exploration and Positive Stewardship

Stem-Cell Debate: Ethical Questions
Stem-Cell Ethics: A Theological Brief

Stem-Cell Questions
Theistic Evolution: A Christian Alternative to Atheism, Creationism, and Intelligent Design...
Theology and Science: Current Issues and Future Directions
Unscientific America: How science illiteracy threatens our future
Will ET End Religion?

Current Stats: topics: >2600, links: >300,000, video: 200 hours.