Divine Agency and Divine Action. Volume 1: Exploring and Evaluating the Debate. Volume 2: Soundings in the Christian Tradition. By William J. Abraham

2018 ◽  
Vol 70 (1) ◽  
pp. 489-491
Author(s):  
Terry J Wright
Keyword(s):  
Christian Tradition ◽  
Divine Action ◽  
Divine Agency

Divine Agency and Divine Action, Volume II

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
William J. Abraham
Keyword(s):  
Christian Faith ◽  
Christian Tradition ◽  
Divine Action ◽  
Generic Concept ◽  
Divine Inspiration ◽  
Divine Agency ◽  
Divine Concurrence ◽  
Ways Of Thinking

This book builds upon the groundwork laid in the first volume, where it was established that no generic concept of action will suffice for understanding the character of divine actions explicit in the Christian faith. This volume argues that in order to understand divine action rightly, one must begin with the array of specific actions predicated of God in the Christian tradition. The author argues, in a way, that one must do theology in order to analyze properly the concept of divine action. Thus the book offers a careful review and evaluation of the particularities of divine action as they appear in the work of biblical, patristic, medieval, and Reformation-era theologians. Particular attention is given to the divine inspiration of Scripture, creation, incarnation, transubstantiation in the Eucharist, predestination, and divine concurrence. The motive here is not simply to repeat the doctrinal formulations found in the Christian tradition, but to examine them in order to find fresh ways of thinking about these issues for our own time, especially with respect to the contemporary debates about divine agency and divine action.

Divine Agency, Divine Freedom, and Divine Suffering

2021 ◽  
pp. 21-37
Author(s):  
William J. Abraham
Keyword(s):  
Thomas Aquinas ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Christian Tradition ◽  
Divine Action ◽  
Rational Deliberation ◽  
Concepts Of God ◽  
Divine Agency ◽  
Divine Freedom

This chapter argues that traditional concepts of God as pure act, impassible, atemporal, and simple should be rethought in light of the canonical claims the Christian tradition makes about divine action. First, it examines why we should hold to a strong account of divine agency. On this basis, it argues that we cannot avoid predicating such concepts as choice, mercy, rational deliberation, love, suffering, wrath, and patience to God. The chapter calls this divine “agentism.” Second, it argues that the central claims of agentism are incompatible with the thought of Thomas Aquinas (“Thomism”) and some of its major exponents. Third, it argues why Thomism is unpersuasive. Finally, it indicates some directions for future research in this area.

Divine Agency and Divine Action, Volume IV

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
William J. Abraham
Keyword(s):  
Systematic Theology ◽  
Christian Tradition ◽  
Divine Action ◽  
Christian Doctrine ◽  
Concept Of God ◽  
Presence Of God ◽  
Divine Agency ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship

Following the first three volumes in the series on divine action, this fourth and final volume seeks a prescriptive account of God as an agent. Christian systematic theology raises deep metaphysical questions about the central concepts we use in our thinking about God. One of these central concepts bequeathed by the Christian tradition is that God is an agent. While volumes 2 and 3 offered a wide range of specific divine actions offered in the canonical Christian tradition, the question of how to articulate this basic conviction arises. In this volume, Abraham expounds the concept of God as agent by applying it to various traditional problems in Christian doctrine like the relation of freedom and grace, divine action in liberation theology, the presence of God in the Eucharist, divine providence, the relationship of Christianity and Islam, the relation of the natural sciences to theology and apparent design, and the realm of the demonic. In keeping with the argument of the tetralogy as a whole, specific divine actions are the points of departure for reflection on these topics. The book aims not only to clarify the concept of God as an agent but also to articulate solutions to these traditional problems. It is designed to be the launchpad for further research in divine agency and divine action and how an account of God as an agent can throw fresh light on old theological and philosophical problems.

Introduction

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
William J. Abraham
Keyword(s):  
Sufficient Conditions ◽  
General Concept ◽  
Christian Faith ◽  
Christian Tradition ◽  
Divine Action ◽  
Contemporary Debate ◽  
The Core ◽  
Divine Agency ◽  
Necessary And Sufficient ◽  
Critical Investigation

This introduction forms the bridge between the first and second volumes. The author points us back to his argument in Volume One that a central mistake in debates about divine agency and divine action is that one must use a general concept of divine action to understand the particular network of divine actions in creation and redemption that are at the core of the Christian faith. Even if one finds necessary and sufficient conditions for a concept of divine action, that concept will not inform us in any meaningful way about what God has actually done on our behalf. The author proposes that a careful, critical investigation of the Christian tradition will best supplement the intellectual malaise among Anglophone analytic philosophy on divine action. By careful attention to specific divine actions in the Christian tradition, one will find fresh ways of thinking about divine action in the contemporary debate.

Divine Agency and Divine Action

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
William J. Abraham
Keyword(s):  
Recent Work ◽  
General Concept ◽  
Systematic Theology ◽  
Christian Tradition ◽  
Divine Action ◽  
Half Century ◽  
Divine Agency ◽  
Context Dependent ◽  
To Come ◽  
Open Concept

The fundamental problems that have arisen over the last half-century in treatments of divine action in the Christian tradition stem from a failure to come to terms with the concept of action. Theologians and philosophers have assumed that we can have a closed conception of agency on a par with the concept of knowledge. On the contrary, the concept of action is a general concept like “event,” “quality,” or “thing.” It is an open concept with a great variety of context-dependent criteria. Recent work on the concept of action can provide an initial and utterly indispensable orientation in work on divine agency and divine action, but it cannot resolve fundamental questions about what God has really done; nor can it illuminate the particular actions of God that are so important in theology. For that we need to turn to theology proper, that is, to work in historical and systematic theology.

Divine Agency and Contemporary Neo-Thomism

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
William J. Abraham
Keyword(s):  
Divine Action ◽  
Philosophical Work ◽  
Divine Agency

In this chapter, the author explores the severe criticism directed at those who would talk of God as a being, or a person, and therefore also as an agent. The author engages the work of Thomist philosophers of religion Brian Davies and Herbert McCabe, and concentrates on their claims about divine agency and divine action. He argues that their criticisms against conceiving God as an agent fail for a variety of reasons. He further argues that these Thomists lose the concept of divine agency in their philosophical work, despite the fact that they need it to sustain their theological commitments. Finally, he argues that they are also guilty of confusion and equivocation in their account of the relation between divine agency and free human acts.

The Stamp of the Infinite

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
William J. Abraham
Keyword(s):  
Divine Action ◽  
Divine Agency ◽  
Book Of Acts ◽  
The Church

In this chapter, the author engages what Paul of Tarsus says about divine agency and divine action in his letters and in the book of Acts. Attention is given to the types of divine actions Paul identifies, whether he identifies God as an agent of various actions, and his comments about whether we have access to divine agency and divine action. The author identifies particular divine actions seen in Paul’s writings, like the work of God in his own life and in his calling as an apostle, personal revelations from Christ, and divine action in the church that brings about unity.

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