Tag Archives: divine agency

Rowboating with God: The Mystery of Synergism

Posted on 11 October 2020 by Fr Aidan Kimel

Several years ago I telephoned a well-known Orthodox theologian and asked him to elabo­rate on the doctrine of synergism. He pointed me to the words of the  Apocalypse of John: “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any … Continue reading →

Posted in Philosophical Theology | Tagged , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Double Agency: Conceiving Divine and Creaturely Causality

Posted on 7 October 2020 by Fr Aidan Kimel

We begin, I suggest, by getting clear in our minds the kind of relationship that exists between Creator and creatures: God’s creative activity is not external to the universe, as is our relation to such things as stoves and books. … Continue reading →

Posted in Herbert McCabe & Friends, Philosophical Theology | Tagged , , , , , , , | 12 Comments

Who Hardened Pharoah’s Heart?

Posted on 9 July 2019 by Fr Aidan Kimel

Ezekiel 12:1-16 In the Exodus story of the ten plagues, who hardens Pharoah’s heart, God or Pharoah? Verses can be cited to support both, and Bible readers have wondered ever since. Modern readers have noted that we should not expect … Continue reading →

Posted in Bible, Robert Jenson | Tagged , , , , , , , | 33 Comments

God is the Doer: Providence and Human Freedom in Julian of Norwich

Posted on 6 November 2017 by Fr Aidan Kimel

Meditation upon the passion and death of Christ leads Dame Julian into a deeper understanding of God’s creation of the world, which in turn prepares her for the third showing—the presence of God in all: And after this I saw … Continue reading →

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God Makes Us Freely Acting

Posted on 7 January 2017 by Fr Aidan Kimel

This article has been revised and republished under the title “Breaking the Cords of Fate”(8 November 2021) “We seem almost compelled,” remarks Hugh McCann, “to think there is some competition here: that when it comes to free will there is … Continue reading →

Posted in Hugh McCann, Philosophical Theology | Tagged , , , , , , , | 16 Comments

Does God “respect” our freedom?

Posted on 22 August 2016 by Fr Aidan Kimel

One often finds the following proposition asserted: God has created humanity as free beings and has thus bound himself not to interfere with their free decisions and choice. Divine agency and human agency are conceived as mutually exclusive. In one … Continue reading →

Posted in Hugh McCann, Philosophical Theology | Tagged , , , , , | 30 Comments

Creatio ex Nihilo: The Grammar of Agency

Posted on 19 April 2015 by Fr Aidan Kimel

Until we grasp the radical transcendence of the eternal Creator, we cannot think rightly either his providential action in the world or of the peculiar freedom that we, as creatures, enjoy in him. Like the ancient Greeks we typically conceive … Continue reading →

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Mysteriouser and Mysteriouser: Divine Agency and Human Freedom

Posted on 3 February 2014 by Fr Aidan Kimel

Because God is the infinite source and ground of all reality, he transcendently causes everything that is and everything that occurs, yet not in a way that conflicts with the scientific apprehension of the world. As Diogenes Allen explains: Divine … Continue reading →

Posted in Herbert McCabe & Friends, Philosophical Theology | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments