Tag Archives: free will

Epistolary Adumbrations: Death, Life, and the Creatio ex Nihilo

Posted on 14 February 2018 by

by Brian C. Moore, Ph.D. The following post was originally two parts of what constituted a small dialogue between myself and a young woman who questioned certain aspects of David Bentley Hart’s arguments regarding the nature of freedom and the … Continue reading →

Posted in Brian Moore | Tagged , , , , , , | 10 Comments

Riding the Waves of Providence

Posted on 16 May 2017 by

Imagine a world in which you live not on a body of fixed land, whether continent or archipelago, but on a floating island that moves on the waves, driven by current, tide, and wind. One might describe the island as … Continue reading →

Posted in Inklings & Company | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

St John of Damascus on the Providence of God

Posted on 16 January 2017 by

“God is both Creator and Provider,” writes St John of Damascus, “and is power of creating, sustaining, and providing is his good will. For ‘whatsoever the Lord pleased he hath done, in heaven, and in earth’ [Ps 134:6], and none … Continue reading →

Posted in Theology | Tagged , , , , , , , | 18 Comments

Is God the Author of Sin?

Posted on 10 January 2017 by

Is God the author of sin? The question assumes paramount importance when evaluating the construal of divine and human agency advanced by Hugh J. McCann. Popular theodicies seek to protect God from responsibility for human evil. That’s the upshot of … Continue reading →

Posted in Philosophical Theology | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 51 Comments

God Makes Us Freely Acting

Posted on 7 January 2017 by

“We seem almost compelled,” remarks Hugh McCann, “to think there is some competition here: that when it comes to free will there is no way that both we and God can both have legitimate prerogatives, no way that one can … Continue reading →

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

The World is a Novel in the Mind of God

Posted on 2 January 2017 by

Can God determine our actions? One need not think more than a second or two.  Of course he can, we answer. If CIA brainwashers and television advertising can cause us to act in specific ways, then certainly God can. Let’s … Continue reading →

Posted in Philosophical Theology | Tagged , , , , , , , | 14 Comments

Freedom and Determinism: What’s the Difference?

Posted on 28 December 2016 by

Free agency, states Hugh McCann, exhibits three essential features. First, free actions cannot be “the product of independent event-causal conditions. An autonomous agent has to be a center of novelty—a point from which, to the extent he influences it, the … Continue reading →

Posted in Philosophical Theology | Tagged , , , , , , | 26 Comments