Understanding God's Role: Divine Action in Creation, Providence, and Revelation, Slides of Philosophy

Download Understanding God's Role: Divine Action in Creation, Providence, and Revelation and more Slides Philosophy in PDF only on Docsity! Divine Action: How does God act in the World? Docsity.com Important Doctrines • Creation – God made everything that exists – Ex nihilo – out of nothing • Creation = God (Pantheism) • Not created from pre-existent ‘stuff’ – God continues to create new things – God is still immanent in the world Docsity.com Important Doctrines • Revelation – Special • Revelation in Scripture • History of Israel • Jesus’ life – General – Hints or clues to God’s existence in creation • Christian tradition is full of ways God has acted and continues to act Docsity.com What is the Problem? • Depends largely on concept of laws of nature • How are we able to understand God’s action in relationship to the laws of nature? • Are the laws of nature in conflict with the laws of God? Docsity.com Isaac Newton • Great achievement of early modern physics – Provide a small set of simple laws that account for all forms of motion – F = ma (force =mass x acceleration) • How did Newton understand this theologically? Docsity.com Theological Implications • Deism – Popular rational religion in the 1700s and 1800s – God starts the universe and creates the laws of nature such that the universe is self-sustaining – No further need for divine action in the universe – No work of God in salvation history • Problem: How do we account for God’s continuing action in creation? Docsity.com Immanence • Liberal Solution – God upholds in one magnificent creative event, the whole natural order – Helps with the problem of evil – • God does not choose to put a Tsunami in India, • God did not put Hitler in Power – Cannot ask why God didn’t intervene to change these events Docsity.com Immanence • General (Liberal) Solution – Problems – Hard to hold onto the claim that God was in Christ in any special way – leads to “low christologies” – Give up on miracles, special providence – Must assume that scriptural accounts of miracles serve a different purpose – Difficult to retain concept of personal relationship with God – How is petitionary prayer of any value? Docsity.com When does God act? • Several different options – Doesn’t – Only in Biblical history – Only in Biblical history and other rare occasions – Frequently in daily life • Every year • Month, etc. – Only in human experience – In physical world Docsity.com Ideal Picture • God’s action and natural causation in each event • Ways to differentiate between events that express God’s intentions more or less • Just because something is explained by science does not have to negate it also being a part of God’s action Docsity.com